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Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

in  2014 

https://archive.org/details/artdecorationappOOspof_0 


ART  DECORATION 

APPLIED  TO 

FURNITURE. 


BY 

HAERIET  PRESCOTT  SPOFFORD. 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS, 


HARPER 


NEW  YORK: 
&  BROTHERS,  PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN  SQUARE. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1877,  by 
HARPER   &  BROTHERS, 
the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


LIE  following  chapters  on  the  history  and  character  of  Household 


Furniture,  originally  published  in  Harpers  Bazar,  are  reprinted  at 
the  solicitation  of  many  readers,  with  some  additions  and  emendations. 

While  admitting  inevitable  deficiencies,  it  is  but  just  to  say  that  they 
have  been  compiled  with  care  and  research,  much  time  has  passed  in  their 
preparation,  and  almost  every  known  authority  has  been  consulted  —  the 
resources  of  the  Congressional  Library,  directed  by  the  great  learning  of 
its  librarian,  having  been  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  writer  during  the 
study  of  the  subject. 

Particular  acknowledgment  of  indebtedness  is  made  to  the  writings 
of  Turner,  Strutt,  Palmer,  Fergusson,  Wornum,  and  Dresser,  as  wTell  as  to 
such  volumes  as  Nash's  "  Mansions  of  England,"  S.  C.  Hall's  "  Baronial 
Halls,"  Chippendale's  Plates,  Sir  Samuel  Myrick's  "  Specimens  of  Ancient 
Furniture,"  Shaw's  "  Elizabethan  House,"  Texier  and  Pullan  on  "  Byzan- 
tine Art,"  Racinet  on  "Polychromatic  Ornament,"  Sir  William  Chambers's 
Chinese  plates,  and  the  South  Kensington  hand-books,  together  with  the 
invaluable  works  of  MM.  La  Pousse,  Paul  La  Croix,  August  Demmin, 
Jules  Jacquemart,  and  Viollet-le-Duc,  with  many  more,  indeed,  whose 
names  it  is  unnecessary  to  enumerate. 

For  personal  courtesies,  for  information,  and  for  designs,  the  writer 
begs  to  thank,  in  company  with  others,  Messrs.  Pottier  &  Stymus,  Kimbel 
&  Cabus,  Herter  Brothers,  and  Cottier  &  Co.,  of  ~New  York ;  Messrs. 
Goupil,  of  Paris ;  and  Messrs.  William  Morris  &  Co.,  Cox  &  Sons,  Her- 
bert &  Co.,  and  William  Dalgleish,  of  London. 


H.  P.  S. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Furniture  in  the  Beginning   13 

II.  In  the  Dark  Ages   17 

III.  Woman's  Share   21 

IV.  The  Seat  ,   25 

V.  The  Bed   34 

VI.  The  Table   40 

VII.  The  Sideboard   46 

VIII.  The  Mirror  and  Glass   51 

IX.  Minor  Articles   58 

X.  The  Material   66 

XI.  Coverings   70 

XII.  The  Ornament   74 

XIII.  The  Gothic  Style   81 

XIV.  The  Kenaissance   88 

XV.  The  Elizabethan   101 

XVI.  The  Jacobean   108 

XVII.  The  Louis  Quatorze   114 

XVIII.  The  Louis  Quinze  !   120 

XIX.  Louis  Seize   125 

XX.  The  Pompeian   131 

XXI.  The  First  Empire   137 

XXII.  The  Moorish   141 

XXIII.  The  Eastlake   147 

XXIV.  The  Queen  Anne   154 

XXV.  Oriental  Styles   161 

XXVI.  Modern  Furniture   167 

XXVII.  Carpets   171 

XXVIII.  Curtains   176 

XXIX.  Wall-paper   181 

XXX.  The  Hall   186 

XXXI.  The  Dining-room   191 

XXXII.  The  Boudoir  and  Sitting-room   198 

XXXIII.  The  Bedroom  1   203 

XXXIV.  The  Library   210 

XXXV.  Drawing-room   215 

XXXVI.  Bric-a-brac   224 

XXXVII.  The  Art  of  Furnishing   231 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGK 

Screen  Frontispiece 

Poinpeian  Table   14 

Chamber  of  Castle  in  Twelfth  Century...  16 

Mediaeval  Dresser   24 

Modern  Gothic  Dining-room  Seat   25 

Italian  Bench  of  Sixteenth  Century  ; 
Flemish  Weapons ;  Italian  and  Palis- 

sy  Ware   26 

Modern  Gothic  Sofa   27 

Another  Italian  Bench  ;  Tapestry,  Sub- 
ject "The  Prodigal  Son"   28 

Fauteuil  of  Charles  V.,  Fourteenth  Cen- 
tury  29 

Venetian  Chair,  Sixteenth  Century;  Bust 

by  Jacques  Sarazin   30 

Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room  Chairs   31 

State  Chair  of  Oak,  Louis  XII. ;  French 

Chair,  Seventeenth  Century   31 

Flemish  Chair,  End  of  Fifteenth  Cen- 
tury  32 

Another  Venetian  Chair   32 

Bed  of  Twelfth  Century,  "Dream  of  Pi- 
late's Wife"   35 

Oak  Bedstead,  Lonis  XIII.,  of  Flemish 

Tapestry,  Brussels,  1530-'40   37 

Great  Bed  of  Ware   38 

Castle  Chamber  in  the  Fifteenth  Cen- 
tury  39 

Elevation  of  Drawing-room  Table   40 

Mediaeval  Table  of  Great  Personages   42 

French  Renaissance  Table   43 

Flemish  Tables   44 

Modern  Gothic  Table   45 

Modem  Gothic  Sideboard   46 

Early  Credence   47 

Modern  Gothic  Bric-a-brac  Cabinet   48 


PAGE 

Dutch  Renaissauce  Cabinet   49 

Italian  Cabinet,  Ebony  inlaid  with  Ivo- 
ry ;  Carvings  illustrating  Jerusalem 
Delivered,  Sixteenth  Century ;  Vene- 
tian Chair   50 

Modern  Gothic  Girandoles   51 

Mirror  of  the  Time  of  Elizabeth   55 

Mirror  of  the  Time  of  Charles  II   55 

Renaissance  Table,  with  Mirror   56 

Chest  in  Carved  Oak  inlaid  with  Colored 

Wood,  Norman  Work,  1550   GO 

Couvre  -  feu,  Seventeenth  Century  ; 
Italian  Bellows,  Sixteenth  Century ; 
Italian  Bronze  Andirons,  same  Date ; 
Gobelins    Tapestry,   Time    of  Louis 

XIV  63 

Hanging  Cabinet   64 

Pipe  Shelves   65 

Chair  made  from  the  Ship  of  Sir  Francis 

Drake   66 

Italian  Oak  Pedestal   69 

Frescoes  executed  under  Raphael's  Di- 
rection   75 

Mediaeval  Gothic  Hall   81 

Modern  Gothic  Window  and  Curtain   82 

Modern  Gothic  Sideboard   83 

Modern  Gothic  Chair   84 

Modern  Gothic  Piano   85 

Drawing-room  in  Modern  Gothic   86 

Cinque-cento  Panel   88 

Italian  Oak  Chair,  Henri  II. ;  Walnut 
Credence,  Louis  XII. ;  French  and 

Flemish  Pottery   90 

Flemish  Chair,  1680;  Oak  Credence, 
Francis  I. ;  Screen  in  Flemish  Tap- 
estry  91 


10 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Armoire  inlaid  with  Marble  and  Col- 
ored Wood,  Francis  I.;  Italian  Wal- 
nut   Chair,   Seventeenth  Century; 

Bust  in  White  Faience,  Koueu   92 

Cabinet,  Henri  II   94 

Piano,  Louis  XIII   95 

Diuing-table,  Louis  XIII   96 

Ebony  Cabinet,  Child's  Walnut  Chair, 
Oak  Easel,  Louis  XIII. ;  Italian 
Sconce,  with  Copper  and  Gold  Chas- 
ing, Sixteenth  Century   97 

Renaissance  Table   98 

Great  Chamber  of  Montacute   100 

Elizabethan  Table  from  Leeds  Castle, 

Kent   102 

Council-chamber  of  Courtray   104 

Elizabethan  Table  from  Longford  Castle  106 
Elizabethan  Table  from  Flaxton  Hall, 

Suffolk   107 

Flemish  Chair  of  Crispin  de  Passe   108 

Flemish  Tables   109 

Jacobean  Cabinet   110 

Jacobean  Court  Cupboard   Ill 

Dining-room  of  Crewe  Hall...   112 

Another  Jacobean  Court  Cupboard   112 

Dining-room  at  Holland  House   113 

Louis  Quatorze  Chair   116 

Louis  Quatorze  Drawing-room   118 

Glass  Room,  with  Flowers  and  Foun- 
tains  123 

Louis  Seize  Chair   126 

Louis  Seize  Bedchamber   128 

Pompeian  Bath-room   133 

Modern  Pompeian  Parlor   135 

First  Empire  Psyche-glass   138 

First  Empire  Arm-chair   138 

First  Empire  Bedstead   139 

Moresque  Sofa,  Mirror,  and  Vase   145 

Eastlake  Dining-table   148 

Eastlake  Sideboard   150 

Eastlake  Chair   152 


PAGE 


Silver  Furniture  of  the  Time  of  James 
II   154 

Hanging  Cabinets  of  Chippendale's  De- 
sign  156 

Queen  Anne  Cabinet   158 

Another  Queen  Anne  Cabinet   159 

Chair  of  the  Time  of  Charles  II.,  owned 

later  by  Horace  Walpole   169 

Chair  of  the  Time  of  William  III   170 

Chair  in  Pepys's  Library   170 

Portiere  in  Modern  Gothic  Drawing- 
room   179 

Queen  Anne  Clock   186 

Modern  Gothic  Hall   188 

Old  Jacobean  Hall   189 

Modern  Gothic  Dining-room   193 

Settee  in  Modern  Gothic   201 

A  Mediaeval  Washing-stand   203 

Oxford  Washing-stand   204 

Modern  Gothic  Bedstead   205 

Modern  Gothic  Dressing-table   206 

Modern  Gothic  Deal  Chest  of  Drawers..  207 

Modern  Gothic  Wardrobe   208 

Library,  Louis  XIII   211 

Modern  Gothic  Bookcase   212 

Modern  Gothic  Library   213 

Library,  with  low  Shelves   214 

Walnut  Cabinet,  Henry  II.  ;  Alabaster 
Medallion,  Head  of  Amazon  (Italian), 
Sixteenth  Century;  Carved  Oak  Chair, 
Henri  Quatre;  Faience  Vase,  Moustier.  216 

Screen  designed  by  Princess  Helena   218 

Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room  Table  and 

Stool   220 

Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room  Screen 

and  Stool   221 

Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room   222 

Walnut  Armoire,  on  Italian  Pedestal, 
Sixteenth  Century ;  Screen  in  Tap- 
estry, Louis  XIV.,  Subject  "  The  King 
and  Mademoiselle  de  la  Valliere"   223 


\ 


ART  DECORATION 

APPLIED  TO 


FURNITURE 


Mflffil 


I. 


FURNITURE  IN  THE  BEGINNING. 

SHOW  me  thy  furniture,  and  I  will  tell  thee  what 
thou  art,"  is  an  assertion  which  has  in  it  much 
more  than  meets  the  eye.    If  we  will  look  into  the  mat- 
ter, we  shall  see  that  there  is  not  a  single  piece  of  furni- 
ture of  the  slightest  description  that  is  not  emblazoned,  as 
one  might  say,  with  the  customs  of  a  people  and  the  manners  of  a  time, 
for  one  who  knows  how  to  seek  for  it. 

Indeed,  as  Mr.  Dresser  informs  ns,  the  customs  of  two  different  peo- 
ples may  be  read  in  the  mere  shape  of  their  water  jars ;  the  long  Egyptian 
jar,  for  instance,  with  its  rounded  larger  lower  end  and  its  single  metal 
handle,  telling  that  it  was  let  down  by  a  cord  into  deep  water,  where  its 
form  allowed  it  to  turn  and  fill  itself,  and  keep  the  centre  of  gravity  right, 
as  it  was  drawn  up — telling  of  the  presence  of  plains,  of  artificial  irriga- 
tion, and  the  resulting  life  ;  while  the  wide  -  mouthed,  high  -  shouldered 
Greek  jar,  with  flat  bottom  and  two  handles,  declares  that  it  was  set  to 
catch  falling  water,  was  carried  on  the  head  without  splashing,  and  hints 
at  the  gossip  round  the  spring  while  the  jar  filled,  and  other  incidents  of 
daily  life  in  a  land  of  mountain  streams.  If  so  much  can  be  learned  from 
the  suggestions  of  two  pieces  of  the  commonest  pottery,  how  much  more 
can  be  gained  from  articles  upon  which  a  much  larger  share  of  art  and 
thought  has  been  expended,  as  the  designer  sought  to  surround  daily  life 
with  comfort  and  beauty,  with  charm  for  the  body  and  the  mind ! 


14 


ART  DECORxlTION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


The  story  of  our  furniture,  of  our  mere  chairs  and  tables,  is  the  story 
of  art  itself ;  is  not  only  that,  but  the  story  of  the  race  from  the  day  of 
the  troglodyte  to  the  day  of  the  sumptuous  Egyptian — the  story  of  Greek 
and  Roman,  and  Arab  and  Goth,  and  the  universal  modern. 

To  say  nothing  of  its  state  with  the  Indian  and  other  Oriental  races, 
with  their  strange  sculptures  and  colors,  their  mats,  divans,  coffers,  and 
tissues,  art  had  already  received  great  development  when  the  Egyptian 
led  the  world;  ornamentation  was  handled  in  a  faithful  spirit,  and  the 
intellect  struggled  with  the  senses  there ;  science,  too,  held  up  a  brilliant 
light,  and  comfort  was  a  thing  of  price :  thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
garniture  of  his  dwelling  should  have  possessed  some  points  beyond  which 
luxury  cannot  aspire  to-day.  The  Egyptian  had  his  beds  of  cedar,  sup- 
ported on  feet,  carved,  painted,  covered  with  the  richest  draperies ;  he  had 
chairs  of  turned  wood,  where  the  red  lotus  shone  on  a  black  ground ;  his 
princes  and  priests  used  tables  of  wood,  of  marble,  and  of  precious  metals ; 
and  vases,  mirrors  of  polished  metal,  tripods,  and  other  small  articles  of 
convenience,  were  in  abundance. 

The  Greek,  taking  his  civilization  from  the  Egyptian,  took  from  him 

also  his  art,  and  raised  it  to  the  pitch  of 
the  pure  ideal.  The  Greeks,  however, 
living  so  largely  in  public,  in  temples, 
theatres,  groves,  and  porticoes,  and  hold- 
ing their  women  and  their  dwellings  in 
small  esteem,  had  but  little  home  life; 
they  expended  themselves  on  their  public 
sculpture  and  painting  and  architecture, 
and  cared  but  slightly  for  the  decoration 
of  their  houses  and  the  arts  and  comforts 
there.  What  articles  of  domestic  furni- 
ture the  Greeks  had  were,  of  course,  with 
their  subtle  taste,  perfect  in  outline,  if  not 
in  idea ;  but  they  were  very  few,  and 
they  seem  to  have  produced  nothing  new  : 
all  they  did  was  to  modify  and  perfect 
Egyptian  suggestion,  and  drop  its  sym- 
bolism from  ornament. 

The  Roman,  although  inheriting  from 
the  Greek,  paid  much  more  attention  to  household  art.  Poor  as  the 
position  of  woman  was  at  the  best,  it  was  with  the  Roman  an  advance 
upon  what  it  had  been  with  the  Greek.  Having  a  home  that  he  valued, 
the  Roman  made  it  a  part  of  his  business  to  render  it  delightful ;  and  at 


Pompeian  Table. 


FURNITURE  IN  THE  BEGINNING.  15 

his  summer  luxury  in  Pompeii  and  elsewhere,  he  was  prodigal  of  beauty 
in  grafting  all  manner  of  Egyptian  ornament  upon  Greek  form  till  fancy 
could  go  no  further. 

But  when  Rome  went  to  pieces,  such  household  art  as  had  already 
been  accomplished  went  with  it.  The  barbarians,  in  their  course  of  de- 
struction throughout  the  Western  Empire,  destroyed  nearly  everything 
but  reminiscence.  The  industrial  arts  no  longer  existed ;  the  artisan, 
with  no  models  to  copy,  and  with  the  tradition  of  his  trade  broken  by  the 
absence  of  instruction,  reverted  to  the  rude,  and  nothing  whatever  of  any 
moment  was  produced  in  the  West  of  Europe  for  centuries.  All  that 
there  was  of  comfort  or  convenience  or  splendor  came  from  the  East. 
Silks,  perfumes,  spices,  gems,  ivory,  gold-wrought  fabrics,  and  the  smaller 
articles  of  furniture  reached  the  West  and  the  middle  of  Europe  at  first 
through  Egypt,  and  afterward  through  a  commerce  established  between 
the  devout  pilgrim  who  visited  Jerusalem  and  the  devout  Arab  who  visit- 
ed Mecca,  commerce  having  as  much  to  do  with  the  double  pilgrimage  as 
religion ;  and  as  previously  the  barbarian  had  descended  on  a  land  that 
he  knew  to  be  laj)ped  in  luxury,  so  then  the  palmer,  after  another  fashion, 
enriched  his  barren  home  from  the  East. 

Thus  it  was  not  till  the  time  of  Charlemagne  that  the  arts  began  to 
revive  and  look  about  them.  On  the  rude  old  foundation  that  had  been 
left  them,  a  sense  of  Eastern  richness  began  to  work ;  Byzantine  glories 
kindled  the  imagination  and  created  rivalry ;  thought  awoke,  conscience 
came  upon  the  scene,  and  slowly  the  interior  of  castle  and  palace  began  to 
change  character  and  to  surround  the  occupants  with  beauty — beauty  that 
demanded  preservation,  preservation  that  demanded  peace. 

In  all  the  years  that  had  intervened — years  of  the  Dark  Ages  —  the 
troubled  state  of  affairs,  it  will  be  seen,  could  lend  no  countenance  to  art 
or  artisan.  Every  lord  of  a  territory  was  a  sovereign  surrounded  by  foes, 
liable  to  attack.  If  he  dwelt  at  home,  his  halls  were  only  a  military  depot, 
where  all  his  fiefs  had  entrance  in  the  feudal  family ;  if  he  went  abroad, 
uncertain  of  his  ability  ever  to  return,  he  took  his  valuables  with  him, 
and  they  might  not  be  too  many  or  too  unmanageable.  His  furniture 
then  consisted  of  little  but  the  chests  that  he  could  carry  with  him  in  his 
train,  and  which  in  the  castle  served  for  seat,  table,  bed,  and  treasury. 

But  as  the  times  became  more  gentle,  the  suzerain  could  afford  to  in- 
crease the  evidence  of  his  wealth.  No  longer  in  perpetual  danger,  he  did 
not  need  that  everything  should  be  either  easily  portable  or  else  fixed  to 
the  castle  in  stone.  The  chest  grew  into  the  armory  and  the  cabinet,  and 
was  enriched  with  carving ;  the  bench  into  the  chair ;  the  bed,  with  its 
trappings,  took  its  great  corner;  the  hearth  received  its  decoration;  man- 


L6 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


uscripts  came  from  the  East ;  travelled  guests  were  entertained,  who 
talked  late  o'  nights  concerning  foreign  marvels ;  chivalry  demanded  that 
the  women  should  be  better  cared  for,  with  tapestries  and  cushions  and 
folding  screens  in  the  great  halls  where  the  winds  blew;  journeys  were 
taken  ;  the  lord  came  home  from  one  of  the  Crusades,  and  brought  memo- 
ries of  the  East  with  him — stories  of  Istamboul,  wonders  that  he  had  seen 
at  Venice ;  and  then  at  last  the  taste  of  the  owner  began  to  direct  the  skill 
of  the  maker,  and  the  romance  of  the  Middle  Ages  turned  a  gilded  leaf. 
Splendor  had  come,  and  come  to  stay,  shining  more  brilliantly  year  by 
year — a  barbaric  splendor,  lacking  the  elements  of  comfort  yet,  but  mak- 
ing, as  its  proportions  spread,  an  attractive  picture. 


Chamber  of  Castle  in  Twelfth  Ceutury. 


"  Instead  of  fancying  with  the  mind's  eye,"  says  Sir  Samuel  Myrick, 
"  that  we  behold  the  stately  knights  and  dames  of  old  sitting  within  bare 
walls  and  resting  their  feet  on  rushes,  instead  of  imagining  that  we  imi- 
tate their  greatest  splendor  when  we  confine  the  decorations  of  rooms  in 
modern  Gothic  buildings  to  oak  and  stone  colors  relieved  with  a  little 
gilding,  we  must  now  do  them  the  justice  to  allow  that  while  their  tables 
glittered  with  plate  and  jewels,  their  beds  dazzled  with  the  richness  of 
their  hangings,  and  their  seats  were  decorated  with  refulgent  draperies, 
the  Gothic  carving  of  their  furniture  became  brilliant  by  scarlet,  blue,  and 
gold,  and  the  walls  of  their  apartments  had  the  most  interesting  as  well  as 
most  effective  appearance  from  the  grand  paintings  or  the  rich  tapestry 
that  were  placed  among  them." 


IN  THE  DARK  AGES. 


17 


II. 

IN  THE  DARK  AGES. 

THE  furniture  of  the  Dark  Ages,  such  as  it  was,  was  made  upon  tra- 
dition of  the  old  Roman  joinery,  save  where,  here  and  there,  some 
germ  of  the  Gothic  thought  started  and  fitted  the  article  exactly  to  its 
use,  however  rude  the  construction.  It  was  doubtless  adapted  to  the  con- 
ditions of  life  in  the  stone  fastnesses  which  were  made  not  for  pleasure, 
but  to  resist  attack,  and  life  within  which  was  only  an  affair  of  time  be- 
tween battles.  The  one  great  hall  served  for  every  use.  The  family 
lived  there,  the  vassals  met  there;  it  was  dining-room,  sleeping -room, 
and  hail  of  justice.  The  bedchamber  was  merely  a  space  screened  off 
from  it.  If  a  guest  came,  his  bed  was  built  up,  curtained,  and  screened 
before  his  eyes — a  chamber  within  a  chamber.  It  was  all  a  grand  sort 
of  encampment. 

In  this  hall,  around  the  hearth,  where,  after  chimneys  came,  the  trunks 
of  trees  burned,  a  score  could  sit  at  ease,  and  if  the  blazing  fire  were  too 
hot,  thrust  their  feet  and  legs  into  osier  baskets  that  protected  them. 
Torches  hung  from  hooks  in  the  wall,  or  quaint  oil-fed  lamps  made  dark- 
ness visible,  and,  later,  sconces  and  chandeliers  and  candlesticks  lent  their 
illumination ;  for,  long  before  carpenters  and  cabinet-makers  had  any  skill 
at  all,  the  iron  and  brass  workers  of  the  provinces  were  accomplished  ar- 
tists. At  the  upper  end  of  the  hall  the  flagged  floor  was  usually  raised, 
forming  a  slight  platform,  where  the  lord  and  his  ladies  sat,  the  ladies  at 
their  wheel  and,  after  they  had  had  a  glimpse  of  some  piece  of  Oriental 
tapestry,  after  some  wandering  knight  had  told  them  of  its  beauty,  or 
some  returning  priest  had  advised  them  of  its  uses,  at  their  needle-work. 
Around  this  part  of  the  hall  ran  a  form,  a  bench,  after  a  while  divided  by 
arms  and  dignified  with  a  back,  already  an  improvement  on  its  backless, 
armless  predecessor.  This  form  was  evidently  a  fixture  to  the  wall ;  for, 
while  the  front  of  the  tall  back  was  decorated  according  to  the  taste  of 
the  period,  the  back  was  invariably  rough.  There  was  but  one  chair  in 
the  hall.  It  belonged  to  the  master.  Sufficiently  uncomfortable,  a  mere 
box,  knobs  at  first  continuing  its  four  uprights,  and  afterward  with  a  six- 
inch  railing  around  the  three  sides,  it  was  yet  the  seat  of  honor.    If  a 

2 


18 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


superior  visited  the  castle,  it  was  relinquished  to  that  personage ;  if  one 
who  was  held  as  inferior  came,  the  master  retained  his  chair,  and  the 
guest  took  a  bench.  These  benches  were  sometimes  a  mere  j>lank  sup- 
ported by  uprights;  sometimes  long  and  narrow  chests  where  valuables 
were  packed,  inside  of  which  other  boxes  were  fastened  or  strong  com- 
partments made,  certain  of  them  very  simple,  others  entirely  covered 
with  rich  ornamentation  of  hammered  iron-work  in  locks,  hinges,  clamps, 
till  they  were  really  beautiful  objects,  and  others  nothing  but  a  whole 
net-work  of  iron  over  red  or  gilded  leather.  At  first  these  chests  were 
adorned  merely  with  this  lavish  iron -work,  and  covered  with  leather 
stamped  in  curious  patterns,  painted  and  gilded;  at  a  later  period  they 
carried  armorial  carvings  and  other  emblems  cut  in  the  wood  of  which 
they  were  made  ;  and  as  taste  and  the  love  of  ease  developed,  backs  were 
added  to  some  of  these  as  well  as  to  the  forms,  together  with  arms,  all 
carved  very  ornamentally ;  but  the  seat  was  still  a  lid  that  lifted,  and 
these  were  the  chief  and,  for  a  long  time,  almost  the  only  pieces  of  fur- 
niture of  the  Middle  Ages.  By  degrees  cushions  were  laid  upon  it,  stuifs 
were  thrown  loosely  over  it,  footstools  were  placed  before  it ;  and  then, 
as  the  small  articles  of  value  increased,  it  wTas  lifted  upon  fs^t:  one  was 
superimposed  upon  another,  the  lids  were  changed  to  doors,  and  the  chest 
became  the  cabinet.  Folding-seats  mearpvhile  were  an  ancient  article  of 
use  in  this  restricted  equipage — camp-stools,  as  they  are  still  called — for 
they  were  a  remnant  of  the  Roman,  and  were,  moreover,  a  part  of  the 
household  that  could  be  taken  into  the  field,  as  any  chieftain  could  make 
his  throne  upon  a  camp-stool,  with  men  of  arms  holding  his  banner  be- 
hind him. 

As  the  Dark  Ages  came  to  an  end,  as  chimney's  were  introduced,  as 
life  in  the  castle  became  a  more  permanent  thing,  and  as  various  refine- 
ments among  the  neighboring  clergy  became  contagious  with  the  laity, 
ideas  for  the  decoration  of  the  halls  were  borrowed  from  the  decora- 
tion of  the  churches,  and  their  articles  of  convenience  were  imitated ; 
the  screens,  that  had  defended  the  dwellers  from  the  draughts  of  the 
doors  and  the  windows  and  the  great  chimneys,  were  beautified  with 
home -wrought  tapestry  or  with  that  of  Flemish  handiwork,  were  made 
of  splendidly  gilt  leather  or  of  heavy  cloth  from  Syria ;  they  lined  the 
whole  extent  of  the  wall  of  the  room,  sometimes  in  a  heavy  curtain  such 
as  now  hangs  before  the  door  of  many  European  cathedrals,  sometimes 
in  a  carved  wainscot  extending  above  the  head;  and  sometimes  they  di- 
vided the  great  rooms  with  wonderfully  carved  partitions — the  portion 
behind  being  known  as  "the  screens."  Indeed,  the  screen  played  so  im- 
portant a  part  in  this  old  life  .that  no  modern  representation  of  a  medi- 


IN  THE  DARK  AGES. 


19 


aeval  room  would  be  complete  without  it,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  upon 
this  feature  was  lavished  all  that  skill  and  fancy  ever  attained.  It  stood 
around  the  huge  beds  that  the  dogs  shared  ;  before  the  windows ;  in  fold- 
ing-leaves around  the  corners  of  the  tire,  from  the  shelf  over  which  hooks 
held  some  hangings  that  could  at  will  shield  the  lady's  face  from  the 
blaze. 

When,  at  length,  mats  of  woven  reeds  and  of  finer  material  were  laid 
upon  the  flags,  there  was  probably  a  great  outcry  about  effeminacy ;  and 
it  must  have  been  a  revolution,  too,  when  the  great  table  became  an  estab- 
lished fact ;  for  it  was  not  so  many  years  before  that  people  had  eaten  off 
a  cloth  laid  upon  the  floor,  and  the  free  use  of  great  cushions  everywhere 
about  the  floor  still  recalled  the  custom.  Probably  the  luxury  of  the  re- 
past was  heightened  by  the  strange  hot  and  sweet  spices  that  were  brought 
from  the  East  now,  that  cost  immense  sums,  and  were  put  away  with  the 
precious  robes  and  goldsmiths'  work.  We  read  of  banquets  with  ragouts 
of  flesh  and  of  fish,  with  fruits  and  sweetmeats  and  wines  ;  and  banqueting 
having  become  so  delicious,  of  course  the  table  became  a  place  for  linger- 
ing. The  appearance  of  the  table  had  certainly  resolved  itself  into  one 
of  splendor ;  with  spoil  of  gold  and  silver  and  jewelled  dishes,  and  flag- 
ons from  the  Saracen  artificer ;  with  the  rich  cups  and  vases  of  the  native 
artists ;  with  colored  glasses  and  rock-crystal ;  with  bronzes  and  plate  of 
all  sorts,  of  Saxon,  Scandinavian,  or  Burgundian  workmanship.  The  cre- 
dence, also,  had  been  borrowed  from  the  Church,  and  erected  into  the 
dresser,  and  on  its  shelves  glittered  the  surplus  of  such  costly  plate  and 
pottery  as  the  house  possessed.  In  addition  to  all  this,  garments  had 
grown  to  be  exceedingly  rich,  of  silk  and  samite  and  figured  Moorish 
stuffs,  embroidered  with  gold  thread  and  wrought  with  pearls,  and  they 
accordingly  demanded  other  treatment  than  that  of  rude  seats,  or  the 
neighborhood  of  spurs  and  swords.  It  is  only  the  first  step  that  costs ; 
the  Dark  Ages  were  past,  and  the  mediaeval  fancy,  stimulated  by  what  the 
Crusades  had  taught,  or  by  the  slow  opening  of  the  Byzantine  seed  long 
slumbering  there,  began  to  produce  countless  objects  of  interest  and  of 
use,  and  to  turn  old  shapes  into  new  beauty ;  carpenters  became  cabinet- 
makers, cabinet-makers  became  artists.  The  halls  that  they  adorned  were 
no  more  places  for  men-at-arms ;  the  natural  and  necessary  feudal  aris- 
tocracy gave  way  to  quite  another  thing;  life  was  no  longer  in  common  ; 
sleeping-rooms  were  set  apart  from  the  grand  hall — hence  the  word  apart- 
ment ;  the  rooms  of  the  mistress  were  set  apart  from  those  of  her  women  ; 
cabinets  fit  to  hold  her  precious  possessions  were  built  in  them,  resting- 
places  for  her  idle  moments,  benches  that,  being  movable,  must  have  the 
cloths,  once  carelessly  thrown  over  them,  now  fastened  on  and  nailed, 


20 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


beds  of  luxury,  prie-dieux;  the  walls  were  painted  above  the  tapestry, 
the  beams  of  the  ceiling  were  carved,  the  chimney  was  treated  with 
honor  and  decorated  to  the  last  point ;  the  windows  were  widened,  the 
waxed  linen  and  parchment  of  their  panes  supplanted  by  glass,  their 
curtains  made  sumptuous;  the  rooms  of  the  mistress  became  the  pleas- 
ant place  to  loiter;  the  castle  ceased  to  be  a  fortress,  and  became  a  dwell- 
ing. And  at  last,  as  the  Middle  Ages  also  passed,  as  day  by  day  life 
opened  into  an  easier  and  more  enjoyable  thing,  with  all  the  pleasures 
of  peace  about  it,  enervated  by  luxury  and  subdued  by  what  it  fed  on, 
then  the  dwelling  was  ready  for  a  different  furnishing,  for  one  that  should 
not  only  please  the  eye,  which  had  wearied  of  the  simplicity  of  merely 
noble  lines,  but  should  also  please  the  body,  that,  no  longer  under  the 
stern  necessities  of  war  and  a  warlike  household,  could  afford  to  indulge 
its  languor  in  comfort  and  relaxation. 


WOMAN'S  SHARE. 


21 


III. 

WOMAN'S  SHARE. 

THE  influence  of  women  in  bringing  about  all  these  modifications  of 
the  menage  has  been  a  powerful  one.  From  the  day  when  the  priests 
succeeded  in  prevailing  upon  the  Gaul — who  was  in  the  habit  of  making 
himself  the  husband  of  as  many  wives  as  he  could  afford  to  care  for — to 
imitate  his  German  neighbor,  who  wTas  the  husband  of  but  one  wife,  they 
made  the  marriage  ceremony  a  thing  of  splendid  note  with  the  use  of  their 
most  sacred  and  memorable  rites.  They  honored  the  woman,  and  made 
her  honorable  in  her  husband's  eyes,  and  through  her  obtained  the  influ- 
ence over  her  half-savage  lord  that  they  could  hardly  obtain  otherwise. 
With  the  Teutonic  tribes,  of  course,  this  was  unnecessary,  for  the  women 
who  had  been  held  as  a  sort  of  priests  themselves  in  the  old  wild  life  need- 
ed the  countenance  of  no  other  priesthood  in  order  to  maintain  the  rev- 
erence of  their  husbands.  Receiving  reverence  and  honor  then,  they  re- 
ceived indulgence ;  and  thus  with  Frank  or  Teuton  or  Saxon  the  woman, 
as  a  rule,  had  what  she  would. 

Moreover,  life  under  the  feudal  system  wTas  calculated  to  make  it  diffi- 
cult to  refuse  the  woman  anything  she  desired.  She  was  obliged  to  be 
the  partner  of  her  husband's  affairs  much  more  literally  and  extensively 
than  the  greater  part  of  wives  are  in  these  days.  The  border  baron  off 
upon  his  raids,  the  mountain  chieftain  who  is  obeying  the  call  for  the 
arriere-ban,  must  leave  all  his  interests  in  his  wife's  hands,  and,  of  course, 
prior  to  that,  his  wife  must  be  made  thoroughly  acquainted  with  those 
interests.  As  to  how  well  she  protected  them,  history  is  full  of  the  re- 
cital ;  and  more  than  one  poet  has  sung  of  the  gallant  defence  of  her 
husband's  stronghold  that  some  brave  woman  made  in  those  perilous  days, 
his  enemies  encamped  about  her,  laying  waste  wTith  fire  and  sword. 

Left  thus  so  often  to  her  own  devices  there,  it  is  not  remarkable  that 
in  everything  pertaining  to  home  affairs  she  took  the  lead  and  kept  it:  the 
weary  lord  was  doubtless  only  too  glad  to  be  relieved  by  such  vicegerency. 
In  an  old  chronicle  of  the  time,  cited  by  an  accomplished  French  archaeol- 
ogist, the  life  of  a  chatelaine  is  given,  with  exactly  such  duties  and  honors 
as  the  mistress  of  a  similar  establishment  would  have  in  the  present  time. 


22 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Her  damsels,  the  daughters  of  neighboring  lords  and  allies,  attend  her  as 
she  rises  in  the  morning,  and  walks  in  the  wood  near  by  with  her  rosary 
in  hand,  and  returns  with  flowers  to  the  chapel  and  low  mass,  coming 
from  chapel  to  be  served  with  her  breakfast  of  larks  and  chickens,  and 
wine  out  of  silver  basins.  That  done,  madame  mounts  her  maidens  on 
palfreys,  and  with  their  guests  they  all  ride  into  the  fields,  returning  to  be 
entertained  at  dinner  by  the  lord  of  the  chateau,  while  the  jongleurs  play 
upon  their  instruments.  Benedicite  said,  and  the  napkins  taken  away, 
madame  dances  with  her  chief  guest,  then  spices  and  wine  are  served,  and 
they  separate  for  a  siesta.  After  the  short  sleep,  madame  takes  a  falcon 
on  her  wrist,  and  they  ride  out  again  to  the  hunt,  and,  dismounting,  they 
lunch  in  the  meadows,  and  return  singing  gayly.  Kight  coming  on,  they 
sup,  stroll  outside  the  walls,  and  play  ball  till  dark.  Then  madame  has 
the  torches  kindled,  the  minstrels  come,  they  dance  and  drink  wine,  and 
say  good-night.  One  can  see  that  life  in  the  thirteenth  century  was  be- 
coming different  in  its  gentle  pleasures  from  the  life  of  but  a  short  pe- 
period  before. 

Thus  possessing  the  ability  to  manage  her  husband's  affairs  and  to  en- 
tertain his  guests,  the  mistress  of  the  place,  having  her  way  in  most  things 
not  unreasonable,  could  easily  win  him  to  procure  for  her  all  the  garniture 
that  rumor  whispered  her  some  other  lord  had  brought  his  dame  from  the 
Levant,  from  the  Moors  in  Spain,  or,  later,  out  of  Burgundy.  And  so  she 
procures,  piece  by  piece,  her  square  of  carpet  that  has  come  all  the  way 
from  Persia  to  be  sold  in  one  of  the  yearly  fairs  not  too  far  off;  her  flow- 
ered leather  from  Brabant,  to  hang  before  the  high  back  of  the  great  elab- 
orately carved  seat,  to  get  which  and  her  noble  dresser  made  she  had  such 
ado  with  joiner  and  wood-carver  a  year  long ;  her  tapestry  from  the  Sara- 
cens before  the  day  of  Arras,  Beauvais,  or  Lille;  her  Constantinopolitan 
coffer,  broken  and  yellow,  but  covered  with  exquisite  ivory  sculpture,  to 
feast  her  eyes  and  adorn  the  dresser's  shelf — that  is  laid,  by-the-way,  with 
a  napkin  of  creamy  damask,  with  its  border  of  black  velvet  and  cloth  of 
gold,  and  its  fringe  of  silk — where  stands  the  superb  dish  of  beaten  silver 
from  Cologne  that  on  feast-days  enriches  the  centre  of  her  table,  and  that 
carries  our  modern  epergne  back  to  the  days  of  Chilperic  and  Queen  Fre- 
degonde — procures  all  this,  and  is  ready  for  the  lady  of  the  next  demesne. 
She  would  not  have  had  much  difficulty,  though,  in  her  work,  had  her  per- 
sonal influence  been  less;  for  there  were  few  nobles  of  any  importance 
who,  before  the  end  of  the  fourth  Crusade,  had  not  made  their  journey 
into  the  East  or  into  Africa,  and  had  not  become  accustomed  there  to  un- 
heard-of splendor,  had  not  admired  and  desired  it  themselves,  had  not 
brought  home  such  things  as  were  transportable ;  and  when  they  had  told 


WOMAN'S  SHARE. 


23 


their  wives  the  story,  it  was  for  the  women  to  procure  the  rest  themselves. 
"It  was  not  surprising,  therefore,"  says  M.  Yiollet-le-Duc,  "that  with  the 
sway  of  feudalism  the  role  of  woman  became  important,  and  that  she  as- 
sumed in  the  castle  an  authority  and  influence  over  the  matters  of  every- 
day life  superior  to  that  of  the  castellan  himself.  More  sedentary  than 
the  latter,  she  naturally  contributed  more  to  the  embellishment  of  the 
stronghold,  and  entered  more  warmly  into  the  rivalries  pertaining  thereto, 
which  already  appeared  in  the  thirteenth  century,  when  many  castles  were 
sumptuously  furnished,  and  rich  in  hangings,  carpets,  wood  carvings,  pre- 
cious articles,  and  wealth  of  all  kinds,  the  more  considerable  inasmuch  as 
they  accumulated  unceasingly,  the  wheel  of  fashion  not  turning  then 
with  the  velocity  of  later  ages."  And  when  all  this  was  achieved,  splen- 
did garments  must  be  had  to  suit  the  splendid  furnishing ;  and  when  satin 
and  velvet  were  the  wTear,  satin  and  velvet  must  be  the  seat.  Thus,  one 
thing  leading  to  another,  furnitures  that  had  not  changed  for  centuries 
changed  soon  with  every  reign. 

Of  course  there  were  not  wanting,  then  as  now,  people  to  inveigh 
against  the  extravagance  of  the  women,  who  relegated  the  castle's  great 
armories  and  benches  to  the  huts  of  the  peasants,  who  ruined  the  good  old 
times ;  and  gentlemen  of  small  means  in  the  fourteenth  century  aver  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  marry,  as  gentlemen  of  small  means  do  in  the  nine- 
teenth, on  account  of  the  expenditure  of  the  wives.  Satires  are  written 
in  which  the  lady  declares  that  she  must  have  an  endless  catalogue  of 
treasures — page  after  page  filled  with  her  demands.  "  Don't  I  see,"  she 
says,  "  even  the  low-born  husbands  bring  home  to  their  wives,  when  they 
have  been  in  Paris,  in  Rheims,  in  Rouen,  gloves,  pelisses,  rings,  cups  of 
silver,  and  goblets  of  gold?  Well,  then,  I  must  have  pursefuls  of  jewels, 
knives  covered  with  carving,  pins  set  in  enamel,  white  camelot  and  broid- 
ery for  my  bedchamber, 

"  '  Et  les  courtines  ensement, 
Pigne,  tressoir  semblablement, 
Et  miroir,  pour  moy  ordonner, 
D'yvoire,  me  devez  dormer.' 

I  must  have  halls,  galleries,  well  ordered  to  receive  strangers,  and  there 
must  be  beautiful  beds  and  fine  coverings,  and  the  walls  shall  be  hung ; 
handsome  chairs  must  I  have,  handsome  benches,  tables,  tressels,  dressers, 
screens,  and  any  quantity  of  plate !  Am  I  not  of  good  family  ?"  she  asks  ; 
"  and  shall  I  go  with  less  wherewithal  than  a  shop-keeper's  wife  ?"  And 
what  was  the  case  in  one  country,  probably  wras  much  the  same  in  an- 
other; what  one  woman  has,  another  has  to  have.    Women  taught  to 


2± 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


make  themselves  lovely  must 


have  the  means  with  which  to  do  it ; 
women  living  at  home  must  have 
their  homes  beautiful  and  the  requis- 
ite furniture. 

"  Pancez  vous  qvfelle  preignent  garde 
Comment  l'argent  se  depent  ?    Non  !" 


And  consequently  artisans  come  from 
abroad  to  a  market  that  calls — for  it 
is  little  that  the  home-born  artisan  can 
do  till  he  learns  the  foreign  secrets — 
weavers  from  Greece  and  Asia,  gold- 
smiths from  Milan  and  Venice.  Their 
craft  becomes  common  ;  a  commerce 
in  ivory,  ebony,  gold  and  silks,  and 
all  things  rare  and  fine,  enriches  ev- 
erybody who  is  concerned  in  it ;  and 
out  of  this  extravagance  the  arts  and 
the  trades  and  the  fairs  flourish — flour- 
ish from  year  to  year  and  from  age 
to  age — till  the  last  of  the  fashions  in 
lending  her  days  to 
illuminate  with  the  unforgotten  glories  of  her  father's  court  the  barba- 
rians with  whom  she  has  wed — brings  with  her  in  the  tenth  century  from 
Byzance,  is  one  day  utterly  set  at  naught  by  La  Pompadour. 


Mediaeval  Dresser. 

furniture,  that  a  daughter  of  the  Greek  emperor 


THE  SEAT. 


IV. 

THE  SEAT. 

ALMOST  all  that  we  know  of  very  ancient  furniture  is  gathered  from 
bass-reliefs,  mural  and  ceramic  painting,  and  from  scattered  remarks 
of  the  writers  of  antiquity. 

We  have  pictures  of  Egyptian 
throne  -  chairs,  comfortable  -  looking, 
stately  seats,  rich  with  incrustation 
and  mosaic,  and  others  resembling 
our  common  wooden  kitchen  chair, 
Avhile  an  actual  example  of  one  made 
nearly  two  thousand  years  b.c.  of 
hard  wood  inlaid  with  ivory  may  be 
found  in  the  Louvre.  We  have  draw- 
ings of  quaint  Assyrian  arm  -  chairs 
and  royal  seats  from  Persepolis, 
carved  with  the  echinus,  and  carry- 
ing unicorns'  heads  in  their  decora- 
tion ;  Greek  chairs  also,  eclipsing  in 
lightness  and  perfect  grace  anything  before  or  since  ;  Roman  chairs,  with 
arms  extending  half-way  along  the  side ;  Pompeian  ones,  finer  than  any- 
thing we  can  make  to-day ;  and  the  curule  folding-chair.  It  is  possible 
that  the  golden  chair  of  the  Emperor  Kien  Long,  and  the  other  chairs  of 
China,  the  rattan  and  bamboo  ones,  point  backward  to  greater  antiquity, 
as  the  Chinese  has  not  for  thousands  of  years  been  known  to  make  an  im- 
provement on  himself. 

But  after  the  extinction  of  the  greater  part  of  Roman  splendor,  and 
the  withdrawal  of  the  rest  to  the  East,  where  day  by  day  it  assimilated 
itself  more  and  more  to  Oriental  customs,  the  habits  of  life  seem  to  have 
returned  to  something  very  near  the  primitive.  In  the  general  desolation 
there  was  no  more  furniture,  and,  as  we  have  already  said,  nobody  to 
make  it,  and  the  European  began  again  at  the  beginning.  The  first, 
and  very  frequently  the  only,  seat  was  doubtless  the  chest,  that  its  pred- 
atory owners  found  the  most  convenient  to  their  uses,  and  that  served 


Modern  Gothic  DiUiijy-rooin  Seat. 


26  ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 

for  bed  and  seat  and  table  too.  The  bench  was  probably  suggested  by 
this  for  temporary  purposes,  made  simply  as  the  rudest  bench  of  to-day, 
with  a  plank  and  two  uprights,  but  after  a  while  with  more  care.  Small 


Italian  Jieucu  ui'  oixieentn  (Jeinury ;  .b'ieniish  Weapons ;  Italian  and  Palissy  Ware. 

benches  served  for  solitary  use,  and  for  the  seats  of  inferiors.  These 
were  lower  than  the  others,  sometimes  oblong,  sometimes  triangular,  in 
shape;  which  people  of  the  wealthier  sort  covered  with  a  bench -cloth 
or  with  cushions.  We  still  have  it  in  an  improved  form  in  the  little 
three-legged  stool  which  many  of  us  remember.  In  an  old  manuscript 
of  the  British  Museum,  Constantia,  Duchess  of  Lancaster,  the  wife  of 
John  of  Gaunt,  is  represented  sitting  on  such  a  stool ;  and  hundreds 
of  years  later  the  little  thing  reached  its  highest  honor  when,  under  the 
name  of  the  tabouret,  the  ladies  of  the  court  of  Louis  Quatorze  fought 
for  it.  "  To  have  the  tabouret  was,  in  the  old  French  court,  a  right  pos- 
sessed by  certain  persons  to  place  themselves  on  this  stool  or  on  a  fold- 
ing-seat in  the  presence  of  the  queen.  The  tabouret  was  originally  con- 
ceded only  to  princesses  or  duchesses ;  but  it  was  afterward  allowed  to  all 
such  ladies  as  occupied  the  first  rank  in  the  queen's  household,  and  whose 
husbands  had  a  right  to  an  arm-chair  in  the  king's  apartment,  especially 
when  they  were  dukes  and  peers.  From  the  reign  of  Francis  II.,  cardi- 
nals, ambassadresses,  duchesses,  and  ladies  whose  husbands  were  grandees 


THE  SEAT. 


27 


of  Spain,  as  well  as  the  wives  of  chancellors  and  of  keepers  of  the  seal, 
were  permitted  to  occupy  them."  Meanwhile  the  stool  was  a  seat  less 
dignified  than  the  folding-seat,  and  that  less  honorable,  of  course,  than 
the  chair.    But  that  was  at  a  late  day  of  its  life. 

Where  there  was  no  remembrance  of  the  Roman  chair  in  the  prov- 
inces, these  stools  may  have  originally  suggested  the  loftier  but  still  solitary 
chair.  Yet  it  is  unlikely,  on  the  whole,  that  the  curule,  or  folding-chair, 
handy  as  it  was  for  camp  life,  which  was  essentially  the  life  of  that  period 
between  Roman  sway  and  modern,  ever  went  quite  out  of  use ;  and  the 
chair  may  have  been  recalled  by  that,  made  fast  and  solid  instead  of  light 
and  folding.  Nevertheless,  the  rumor  of  the  chair's  existence  in  the  past 
could  hardly  have  entirely  died  out,  and  the  first  awkward  attempts  may 
have  been  merely  those  of  tradition  without  instruction. 

But  another  seat,  and  one  of  intrinsic  dignity,  was  the  Roman  "form," 
which  the  Church  preserved,  and  which,  like  many  other  articles  of  furni- 
ture, came  from  the  church  to  the  house.  This  differed  from  the  bench 
in  the  separation  of  its  seats  by  arms,  and  the  greater  care  of  its  workman- 
ship. It  was  very  heavy,  and  intended  to  be  stationary ;  but  when,  as  in 
the  handsomest  examples,  provided  with  a  straight  back,  and  both  back 
and  seat  covered  with  stamped  leath- 
er, falling  to  the  floor  in  front  in 
a  gold -fringed  curtain,  the  pillared 
legs  and  the  arms  carved  minutely, 
the  rest  of  the  visible  frame  inlaid 
with  ivory,  ebony,  silver,  and  brass, 
with  a  narrow  margin  of  wooden 
marquetry  intervening  between  the 
feet  and  the  bare  flags  of  the  floor, 
hardly  anything  could  have  present- 
ed a  more  imposing  appearance. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  twelfth 
century  the  backs  of  the  forms  became  higher,  and  presently  they  put  on 
a  dais,  or  wooden  canopy,  and  assumed  the  full  Gothic.  When  the  Gothic 
dais  was  laid  aside  at  length,  as  modifications  for  bodily  ease  took  place, 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  modern  divan,  with  its  indications  of  separate 
seats,  together  with  the  sofa,  can  claim  relationship  with  the  "form." 

It  is  not  necessary,  however,  that  the  sofa  should  seek  so  haughty  an 
ancestry  as  this  old  Roman  shape ;  for  not  long  after  the  tenth  century 
the  plain  bench  began  to  be  furnished  with  a  back,  with  arms  hollowed 
out  a  trifle  for  the  elbows,  the  wood -work  carved,  and  cushions  and 
quilted  stuffs  thrown  over  them.    It  was  in  that  century  that  Robert  of 


Modem  Gothic  Sofa. 


28 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Normandy,  stopping  with  his  knights  at  Constantinople,  on  his  pilgrimage 
to  Jerusalem,  found  the  descendants  of  the  old  Roman  Empire  there 
already  so  Orientalized  that  they  contentedly  sat  upon  the  ground  with 
no  benches  in  the  audience  chamber.    Perhaps  other  evidences  of  a  lux- 


Aiiuiuer  lialuiu  .beucu  ;  Tapestry,  Subject  "Tue  Prodigal  Sou." 


ury  and  a  civilization  unknown  to  them  had  chagrined  the  Normans,  and 
made  them  glad  to  boast  of  the  one  thing  where  they  exceeded;  for, 
throwing  off  their  cloaks,  they  sat  upon  them,  and  when,  on  their  depart- 
ure, the  Greeks  ran  after  them  with  the  garments,  they  surlily  replied 
that  they  were  not  in  the  habit  of  taking  their  benches  with  them.  It 
seems  to  have  been  in  more  courtesy  than  they  deserved  that  the  emperor 
caused  benches  to  be  built  around  the  hall,  that  they  might  sit  as  they 
were  wont  during  the  rest  of  their  sojourn  there.  A  few  centuries  later 
the  backs  of  the  benches  attained  great  altitude,  and  a  carved  dais  over- 
topped them  as  it  did  the  "forms,"  and  the  seats  were  boxed  and  used  for 
chests.  These  seats  were  loosely  cushioned  in  costly  stuffs,  the  cushions 
shaped  in  divers  fanciful  ways  to  give  greater  ease ;  and  from  little  hooks 
in  the  backs  of  the  benches,  just  where  the  arched  dais  began  to  curve  all 
its  splendid  carving,  a  dorsel  hung  over  the  stretch  of  the  plain  wooden 
back,  and  this  dorsel  is  the  first  known  ancestor  of  our  "  tidy,7'  although 


THE  SEAT. 


29 


its  use  was  not  a  "  tidy,"  but  a  merely  ornamental  one.  "With  this  the 
bench  became  a  really  magnificent  piece  of  furniture  in  the  immense  and 
lofty  halls,  and  thus  held  sway  till  the  Renaissance ;  and  there  is  nothing 
lovelier  in  its  way  to-day  than  the  old  Italian  bench  of  the  latter  era. 

These  were  all  seats  of  kindliness  and  sociability,  of  good  neighborli- 
ness.  But  the  chair  was  a  thing  of  state.  Without  any  doubt,  it  devel- 
oped itself  at  the  first  from  the  Egyptian  throne,  and  it  remained  a  throne 
from  the  time  when  but  a  single  chair  in  the  dwelling  announced  the  sov- 
ereign rights  of  the  master  and  ruler  of  the  house,  while  the  herd  gath- 
ered themselves  on  benches,  to  the  present,  when  its  use  confesses  the  sov- 
ereign rights  of  the  individual  and  the  universal  sacredness  of  person- 
ality. The  first  chairs  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  sometimes  only  the  up- 
rights of  the  stool  a  little  extended,  and  now  and  then,  instead  of  the  rude 
seat,  a  lacing  of  broad  leather  straps  with  a  cushion.  In  the  fourteenth 
century  the  royal  fauteuils  were  given 
back,  canopy,  and  platform  ;  and  a  beau- 
tiful one  consists  of  an  oaken  back,  carved 
quite  openly  in  the  perpendicular,  that 
upholds  with  its  arches  a  square  tower 
surmounted  by  tiny  pinnacles  andfinials. 
The  footstool  is  of  lion's  whelps,  and  the 
seat  of  four  racing  hounds,  whose  heads 
protrude  from  a  Persian  drapery  figured 
in  bands  and  circles. 

It  was  the  use  of  this  back,  this  raised 
step  and  canopy,  which  in  reality  made 
the  importance  of  the  royal  fauteuil. 
Without  them,  it  was  a  mere  conven- 
ience; with  them,  it  was  the  place  of 
honor  and  apparent  power.  The  canopy 
was,  perhaps,  in  idea,  the  last  remnant  of 
the  seclusion  that  draperies  hung  about 
the  awe  and  mystery  of  rule.  In  the 
course  of  a  hundred  years  the  fauteuil 
was  no  longer  folding.  A  back  and  stays 
rendered  it  fixed,  and  made  of  it  the  lovely  old  chair  where  the  curved 
arm  and  half  seat  pass  down  and  form  the  leg  in  the  opposite  curve, 
with  fringes  on  the  bars  of  the  stays  behind  and  cushions  on  the  seat. 

But  while  the  idea  of  the  curule  chair  was  developing  into  a  chair 
that  any  one  might  use,  the  chair  itself  was  taking  new  forms.  Square 
in  shape,  and  when  given  a  back,  that  back  a  finishing  a  finger's  length  in 


Fauteuil  of  Charles  V.,  Fourteenth  Century. 


30 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


height,  if  it  had  not  this  finishing,  it  was  sure  to  be  set  against  the  wall 
that  was  tapestried  behind  it.  When  arms  were  added,  the  backs  became 
of  the  same  height,  and  both  arms  and  back  rather  encircled  the  body 
of  the  sitter.  In  the  twelfth  century,  turned  wood  had  begun  to  employ 
attention,  and  cushioned  chairs,  the  arms  supported  by  little  balustrades, 


differing  only 


from  a  chair  of 


the  period  some  five  or  six  hundred 
years  later  by  a  slightly  su- 
perior height,  are  frequently 
found. 

In  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  shapes  became  various, 
and  often  quaint,  or,  in  the 
insular  phrase,  outlandish. 
The  new  voyages  made  In- 
dian and  Persian  and  Egyp- 
tian forms  familiar;  and  we 
see  the  effect  in  curious  po- 
lygonal chairs,  where  five  el- 
bow-high sides  enclose  the 
sitter,  leaving  only  a  narrow 
opening  for  the  feet,  but  with 
immense  room  within  for  the 
garments.  It  was  the  great 
change  of  fashion  in  those 
garments,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  that  produced  the 
change  in  chairs  at  this  time. 
Clothes  had  been  worn  in 
clinging  folds,  not  too  volu- 
minous, made  of  soft  stuffs ; 
now  they  became  ample,  of 
thick  brocades,  velvets,  and 
furs,  which  required  a  great 
deal  of  room  in  order  to  be  well  managed,  and  not  spoiled  by  creasing 
and  rumpling  ;  and  thus  open  and  easy  chairs  appear,  mingling  finely 
turned  wood  with  delicate  carvings  in  the  flat,  with  broad  seat,  high 
back,  low  arms  or  no  arms  at  all,  that  would  be  enviable  chairs  to-day 
either  for  comfort  or  beauty. 

It  is  toward  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  that  we  find  architect- 
ural details  so  largely  introduced  into  chairs.  The  backs  of  many,  al- 
though of  course  not  of  all,  were  made  exceedingly  high,  covered  with 


Venetian  Chair,  Sixteenth  Century;  Bust  by  Jacques  Saraziu 


THE  SEAT. 


31 


Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room  Chairs. 


wonderful  carved  work  of  armorial  bearings,  and  crowned  with  dentella- 
tions,  very  humble  chairs  possessing  still  this  crowning  crest,  if  no  other 
carving.  But  such  seats  were  meant  to  remain  fixed  against  the  wall,  as 
the  wrong  side  of  the  back  was  usually  rough,  so  that  it  is  presumable 


State  Chair  of  Oak,  Louis  XII.;  French  Chair,  Seventeenth  Century. 


32 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


that  they  occupied  some  place  of  hon- 
or. It  is  a  similar  chair,  without  the 
carving,  moved  out  of  place,  that  in 
the  fifteenth  century  we  find  draped 
from  head  to  foot  with  a  vast  hammer- 
cloth  of  rich  material  that  loosely  but 
effectively  covers  back  and  front  and 
sides,  and  extends  some  distance  be- 
neath the  feet  of  the  person  using  it. 
Most  of  this  cumbrousness  went  out  of 
fashion  in  the  succeeding  century ;  the 
lighter  rooms  suggested  lighter  sur- 
roundings :  a  person  wished  to  take  up 
a  chair  and  carry  it  to  an  others  side,  to 
the  now  more  open  window  for  the  air 
or  for  the  view,  to  offer  it  to  a  new- 
comer; and  the  moment  the  chair  was 
made  light  enough  for  that,  the  dra- 
peries and  cushions  could  not  be  al- 
lowed to  make  themselves  a  nuisance 
with  perpetual  slipping  off  and  read- 
justment ;  they  had  to  be  nailed  on.  What  they  lost  in  picturesqueness 
they  gained  in  the  added  convenience,  and  there  was  still  great  interest 
and  picturesqueness  in  the  shapes,  while,  so 
far  as  drapery  was  concerned,  there  was  yet 
no  lack  of  that  in  the  apartments.  After 
this,  the  way  was  open  for  the  modern  chair 
and  the  work  of  science  there,  with  its  stuff- 
ings, its  springs,  its  casters,  its  damasks,  and 
all  the  rest — the  chair  that  in  the  days  and 
the  land  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts  presup- 
posed a  mighty  spine  in  the  user,  that  in 
Venice  declared  an  alert  and  active  race, 
hut  that  in  France  assumed  itself  to  be  the 
companion  of  weariness  and  the  friend  of 
leisure,  and  which,  taking  on  an  unrighteous 
splendor  in  the  days  of  the  second  great 
modern  monarch  in  Europe,  in  those  of  his 
successor,  Louis  Quinze,  adapted  itself  to 
the  shape,  till  the  body  found  it  luxurious- 
ly delightful  as  a  pillowed  cloud  might  be.  Another  Venetian  Chair. 


Flemish  Chair,  End  of  Fifteenth  Century. 


THE  SEAT. 


33 


The  greater  part  of  these  chairs,  through  all  the  many  years,  were 
manufactured  in  wood,  but  occasionally  they  are  found  to  have  been  in 
bronze,  in  iron,  and  even  in  more  precious  metals  —  such  as  the  famous 
chair  of  Dagobert,  and  such  as  the  chair  in  which  Don  Martin,  King  of 
Aragon,  was  throned  when,  after  subduing  the  rebellion  in  Sicily  against 
his  son  and  daughter,  the  sovereigns  there,  he  returned  to  take  possession 
of  his  own  crown,  and  entering  Barcelona  in  triumph,  was  seated  in  this 
chair,  made  all  of  silver,  and  wrought  in  the  highest  style  of  Gothic 
beauty.  Silver,  indeed,  was  not  at  all  an  unusual  article  for  the  construc- 
tion of  furniture,  especially  when  all  other  freaks  had  wearied ;  there  is 
much  elaborate  silver  furniture  still  in  Windsor  Castle,  and  we  read  that 
the  chimney  furniture  of  the  beautiful  rooms  of  the  Duchess  of  Ports- 
mouth, one  of  Charles  the  Second's  wantons,  was  entirely  of  silver,  and  so 
was  the  furniture  of  the  king's  room,  so  called  because  of  some  royal  visit 
there,  in  more  than  one  of  the  vast  English  country-houses. 

3 


34 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


V. 

THE  BED. 

a  T)  LESSED  be  the  man  who  invented  sleep!"  cried  Sancho  Panza ; 

and  we  can  all  of  ns  say,  Blessed  be  the  man  who  made  sleep  so 
restful  and  delicious  as  modern  habits  find  it,  with  elastic  mattresses,  cool 
sheets,  and  changing  clothes.  But  we  have  been  a  long  time  coming  to 
our  present  height  of  luxury,  and  have  reached  it  only  by  degrees. 

About  the  earliest  data  that  we  have  concerning  beds  are  of  the  Egyp- 
tian, and  they  are  very  slight.  Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson  thinks  that  the 
Egyptians  usually  slept  on  their  day  couches,  which  were  long  and  straight, 
sometimes  with  a  back,  sometimes  with  carving  of  the  heads  and  feet  of 
animals  at  the  ends,  made  of  bronze,  of  alabaster,  of  gold  and  ivory,  of  in- 
laid wood,  and  richly  cushioned.  Where  these  were  not  in  use,  mats  re- 
placed them,  or  low  pallets  made  of  palm  boughs,  with  a  wooden  pillow 
hollowed  out  for  the  head.  What  Egypt  had,  the  Assyrian  and  the  rest 
of  the  world  had,  and  the  Greek,  whenever  he  could,  improved  upon ;  and 
the  Greek  couch,  judging  from  the  bass-reliefs  on  many  vases,  was  of  great 
elegance. 

The  Romans,  although  receiving  so  many  of  their  customs  and  so  much 
of  their  art  from  Greece,  slept  very  simply  until  after  their  Eastern  con- 
quests. Indeed,  beds  which,  with  their  pillows,  were  merely  hollows  in  a 
slab  of  stone,  have  been  found  among  Roman  remains.  But  from  the  pe- 
riod when  their  Asiatic  dominion  so  increased,  the  Romans  borrowed  fash- 
ions from  the  conquered,  as  nations  always  do,  and  they  developed  an  im- 
mense luxury,  especially  in  the  matter  of  beds.  Examples  of  the  Roman 
form  of  bed  were  still  preserved  in  the  days  of  Charlemagne.  In  the 
mean  time,  of  course,  in  the  barbaric  life  of  Northern  and  Western  Eu- 
rope, these  forms  generally  being  lost,  it  was  an  advance  in  civilization 
when  the  bench  became  the  bed,  and  people  were  fastidious  enough  at 
last  to  feel  above  sleeping  on  bundles  of  straw  or  heaps  of  skins  upon  the 
flags. 

By  means  of  their  use  by  the  Carlovingian  monarchs  and  their  courts, 
however,  the  form  of  certain  bronze  bedsteads  was  handed  down  to  suc- 
ceeding generations — not  at  all  the  most  inviting  forms  either.  People 
all  but  sat  up  in  these  beds,  so  high  at  the  upper  end  were  the  long  mat- 


THE  BED. 


35 


-tresses  lifted  at  the  head  under  piles  of  cushions  there.  Many  of  them 
had  what  we  call  the  sofa  back,  and  frequently,  instead  of  other  tilling  of 
the  metal  frame,  straps  of  leather  upheld  the  mattresses  and  cushions  like 
the  "sacking  bottoms"  of  the  last  generation.  In  these  beds  the  sleeper 
lay  altogether  naked,  rolled  in  the  drapery,  although  there  was  sometimes 
worn,  as  the  illustrations  of  the  old  manuscripts  show,  a  curious  knotted 
liea  d-d  ress. 

Departing  from  the  twelfth  century,  the  bed  became  a  different  affair, 
nade  occasionally  of  bronze  and  of  other  metals,  but  more  frequently  of 
wood,  carved  and  incrusted  with  ornament, 
sometimes  inlaid,  sometimes  painted,  and 
the  mattresses  themselves  covered  with 
richest  stuffs  of  costly  embroidery  decked 
off  with  gold -lace.  Curtains  of  a  corre- 
sponding richness  were  either  suspended 
from  the  ceiling  or  carried  by  columns 
over  them.  Lamps  were  always  swung 
either  within  the  curtained  space  or  just 
outside,  superstitions  concerning  evil  spir- 
its being  more  rampant  in  those  days  than 
the  spirits  themselves,  and  light  being  sup- 
posed to  have  some  sacramental  power  in 

keeping  them  at  a  distance.  Bed  of  Twelfth  Century,  "Dream  of  Pilate's 

These  beds  seem  at  first  to  have  been 
quite  narrowT,  but  they  gradually  increased  till  they  reached  the  width  of 
something  like  four  yards.  In  such  huge  camps  the  parents  and  all  the 
children,  and  sometimes  the  dogs,  were  wont  to  take  their  night's  rest. 
It  was  considered  the  proper  courtesy  to  invite  an  honored  guest  to  share 
them — a  custom  that  still  obtained  when  Francis  I.  was  able  to  do  Ad- 
miral Bonnivet  no  further  honor  than  by  inviting  him  into  his  bed. 

In  the  twelfth  century,  long  before  the  day  of  this  courteous  king, 
curtains  were  attached  to  the  cross-beams,  with  or  without  additional 
canopy  between  them,  as  the  case  might  be,  used  principally  as  screens. 
At  this  time  the  bed  stood  out  squarely  in  the  room,  with  the  head  to  the 
wall,  and  with  either  side  free,  and  nobody  seemed  to  picture  the  possibil- 
ity of  another  arrangement.  It  was  only  after  so  many  various  divisions 
of  the  original  great  hall  had  taken  place,  and  space  became  an  object, 
that  it  occurred  to  their  owners  to  set  them  closely  into  a  corner — a  much 
less  healthy  if  more  convenient  fashion,  certainly.  To-day  there  is  no  rule 
in  this  matter,  and  we  set  the  bed  as  we  please.  Before  it  was  pushed  up 
closely,  it  was  customary  to  have  an  alley  between  the  bed  and  the  wall, 


3G 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


an  open  space  called  the  "  ruelle."  If  one  were  ill,  friends  were  received 
there,  and  to  be  admitted  to  the  ruelle  of  the  monarch's  bedside  was  a 
crowning  favor.  It  was  into  this  ruelle  and  beneath  the  curtains  of  the 
big  bed  that  the  little  cradle  used  to  be  taken  at  night.  This  cradle,  by- 
the-way,  after  the  child  ceased  to  be  rocked  in  its  father's  shield,  was  at 
first  hollowed  from  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  rocked  by  its  natural  convex- 
ity ;  in  its  next  shape  it  was  an  osier  basket ;  and  later  the  cradles  were 
beds  placed  on  two  pieces  of  bent  wood ;  in  the  fifteenth  century,  boxed 
and  slung  on  pivots.  We  read  of  a  counterpane  for  a  cradle  furred  with 
minever.  Little  holes  were  to  be  seen  piercing  the  sides,  through  which 
to  pass  the  bands  that  held  the  child  safely,  and  the  child  itself  was  band- 
aged like  a  chrysalis,  according  to  a  custom  still  prevalent  in  certain  por- 
tions of  the  East,  and  as  travellers  will  remember  having  seen  babies  band- 
aged in  the  South  of  Italy. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  we  see  the  bedstead  standing  low  on  four 
feet,  with  a  surrounding  balustrade  and  a  narrow  gateway  open  on  one 
side.  The  beds  and  the  cushions  were  stuffed  with  straw  husks  or  feath- 
ers, neither  wool  nor  hair  being  then  used.  At  this  period  sheets  came 
into  use,  a  single  sheet  at  first  rolled  about  one ;  afterward  two  laid  flat 
upon  the  bed,  and  hanging  to  the  floor  as  quilts  hang,  that  is,  not  tucked 
in  about  the  bed.  The  bed  at  that  time  still  stood  in  the  great  hall,  where 
the  family  assembled,  where  the  serfs  came  to  render  account  of  their 
produce,  where  the  culprit  was  brought  for  trial.  Life  was  yet  exceeding- 
ly primitive,  but  it  loved  color  and  general  sumptuousness,  and,  constantly 
advancing  to  greater  splendor  in  every  article,  of  course  did  not  neglect  so 
fine  an  opportunity  for  display  as  this  great  bed  afforded.  In  the  next 
century  the  structure  of  the  article  was  hardly  apparent,  except  for  the 
carved  and  panelled  head-board,  so  utterly  was  it  enveloped  in  heavy  dra- 
peries. The  pane,  as  the  coverlet  was  styled,  was  of  silk  velvet,  cloth  of 
gold,  and  all  sorts  of  rich  stuffs  in  gorgeous  colors,  brocaded  with  silver 
and  gold,  and  lined  with  furs ;  the  counterpane  was  merely  the  double  of 
the  pane,  that  is,  the  original  article  lined ;  and  in  the  complete  equipment 
of  the  bed  there  were  ciels  and  lambrequins,  curtains,  dorsels,  pendants, 
counterpoints,  mattresses,  and  pillows.  The  various  pieces  of  a  bed  of 
Henry  Y.'s  time  are  enumerated  in  a  schedule  as  "a  selour,  a  testor, 
a  counterpointe,  six  tapits  of  arras  with  figures  of  hunting  and  hawking 
worked  in  gold,  and  two  curtains,  and  one  traverse  of  tartaryn,"  the  whole 
equal  to  about  fifteen  thousand  dollars  present  value.  In  the  romance  of 
"Arthur  of  Lytle  Brytagne"  there  is  an  account  of  a  bed  that  must  have 
satisfied  the  highest  aspirations  of  its  owners.  "Also  there  were  dy verse 
beddis  wonderf  ull  ryche ;  but  specyally  one,  the  whiche  stode  in  the  myd- 


THE  BED. 


37 


des  of  the  chambre,  surmounted  in  beaute  all  other ;  for  ye  utterbrasses 
thereof  were  of  grene  jasper  with  grete  barres  of  golde  set  full  of  precyous 
stones  ;  and  the  crampons  were  of  fyne  sylvar  enbordered  wyth  golde,  the 
postes  of  yvery,  with  pomelles  of  corall,  and  the  staves  closed  in  bokeram 
covered  wyth  crymesyn  satyn,  and  shetes  of  sylke  with  a  ryche  coveryni>-e 
of  ermyns,  and  other  clothes  of  cloth  of  golde,  and  four  square  pillowes 
wrought  among  the  Sarasyns  ;  the  curtaynes  were  of  grene  sendal,  vyroned 
wyth  gold  and  azure;  and  round  aboute  this  bedde  there  laye  on  the  floure 
carpettes  of  sylk  poynted  and  embrowdred  with  ymages  of  golde." 

We  do  not  find  a  mention  of  the  bolster,  although  there  were  plenty 
of  comfortable  pillows, 
before  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, at  which  time  the 
beds  assumed  their  most 
exaggerated  proportions. 
It  would  seem  not  to 
have  been  in  such  com- 
mon use  as  to  suffer 
degradation  when  Mil- 
ton referred  to  it  as  no 
poet  would  dream  of  do- 
ing at  present : 

"  Perhaps  some  cold  bank  is  her 
bolster  now." 

The  interior  of  a  bed- 
room in  the  early  part 
of  the  fifteenth  century 
is  described  as  high  and 
spacious,  with  a  "large 
window  at  the  end  ap- 
proached by  stone  steps 
which  form  capacious 
seats  at  the  side.  In 
addition  to  the  lattice- 
work, there  are  inside  shutters  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  out  the  wrind 
and  rain.  The  walls  are  covered  with  richly  embroidered  tapestry  hung 
on  tenter-hooks,  and  the  rich  arras  hangings  are  worked  with  fleur-de-lis. 
A  chair  displaying  novel  taste  in  its  construction,  writh  the  back  and  cush- 
ions embroidered,  is  at  the  bedside,  and  a  couch  well  cushioned  and  cov- 
ered with  arras  gives  an  air  of  comfort  and  refinement  to  the  chamber." 


Oak  Bedstead,  Louis  XIII.,  of  Flemish  Tapestry,  Brussels,  15B0-'40. 


38 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Fine  as  the  beds  of  the  Middle  Ages  were,  those  of  the  Eenaissance 
exceeded  them  in  wealth.  If  there  were  celers  on  the  one,  there  were 
double  celers  on  the  other,  double  curtains,  and  we  hear  of  them  with  dra- 
peries of  violet  satin  with  raised  figures  in  gold,  and  curtains  of  the  cloth 
of  gold  again,  lined  with  stuffs  as  costly :  cloth  of  gold,  it  should  be  under- 
stood, does  not  always  mean  literally  cloth  of  nothing  else  but  gold,  but 
the  gold  filled  one  way  of  the  web  usually,  some  silken  spun  thread  the 
other,  as  there  was  "  cloth  of  gold  of  blue  "  and  " cloth  of  gold  of  cramoisy." 
Some  old  chronicler  complained  of  the  luxurious  fashions,  that  people  were 
no  longer  able  to  sleep  under  simple  quilts,  and  in  the  construction-  of  the 
frame  cedar,  ebony,  ivory,  silver,  and  more  precious  matters  came  to  be 
freely  used.  The  sheets  were  perfumed.  "  The  gromes,"  as  an  ancient 
direction  runs,  "  schell  gadyr  for  the  kinges  gowns  and  shetes  and  othyr 
clothes  the  swete  fioures,  herbis,  rotes,  and  thynges  to  make  them  breathe 
more  holesomely  and  delectable." 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  beds  became  columnar,  and  upheld  the 
canopies  and  curtains  that  had  previously  been  suspended  in  all  their 
cumbrousness  from  the  ceiling.    There  were  beds  of  state  used  on  oc- 

casions  of  parade  then,  vastly  mag- 
nificent, on  which  sometimes  the 
Jjlll  favored  sat,  but  where  no  one  pre- 
tended to  sleep.  There  was  always 
at  this  period  one  in  the  anteroom 
of  the  bedchamber  of  a  royal  per- 
sonage ;  and  into  the  room  where 
it  stood  were  admitted  those  who 
were  not  exactly  to  be  received  in 
the  bedchamber,  but  were  too  im- 
portant not  to  be  treated  with  more 
distinction  than  the  outside  crowd. 
At  about  the  same  time  the  beds 
were  frequently  placed  in  alcoves, 
the  alcove  being  almost  always  cur- 
tained off  from  the  rest  of  the  room  in  which  guests  were  customarily 
received.  The  appearance  of  the  bed  now  must  have  been  something  as 
picturesque  as  it  was  resplendent.  Only  when  the  many  wallowed  in 
squalor  could  such  costly  magnificence  have  been  attained  by  the  few. 
The  bedroom  of  the  Duchess  of  Dolfino  had  a  ceiling  of  a  fretwork  of 
gold  upon  ultramarine  ;  the  walls,  we  are  told,  "  were  superbly  carved  and 
decorated.  One  bedstead  had  cost  five  hundred  ducats,  and  the  rest  of 
the  furniture  was  in  keeping;"  wThile  in  Prince  Doria's  palace  at  Genoa 


Great  Bed  of  Ware. 


THE  BED. 


39 


there  were  whole  bedsteads  of  solid  silver  seen  by  the  traveller  who  re- 
ports them,  set  with  agates,  carnelians,  lapis  lazuli,  pearls,  and  turquoises. 

To-day  we  have,  certainly,  for  those  that  can  command  it — for  million- 
naires,  merchant  princes,  nobles,  and  kings — many  possibilities  of  grand 
and  rich  furniture,  yet  nothing  so  barbarously  rich  and  picturesque  as 
in  the  late  Gothic  and  early  Renaissance  era.  We  have  lost  the  secret 
of  the  gorgeous  stuffs ;  we  should  not  dare  to  use  them  if  we  had  not. 
But  where  in  those  days  there  was  one  bed  of  clean  comfort,  there  are 
now  a  thousand.     There  is  no  worthy  or  industrious,  however  humble. 


Castle  Chamber  iu  the  Fifteenth  Century. 


citizen  of  this  country,  out  of  all  its  millions,  who  has  not  his  comfortable 
bed  and  his  clean  sheets,  and  wTho  cannot  enjoy  his  rest  as  luxuriously  to 
his  body,  if  not  as  delightfully  to  his  eye,  as  any  of  the  old  feudal  nobles 
could,  as  none  of  their  dependents  might.  And  if  we  cannot  produce 
very  vivid  examples  of  beauty  as  of  frequent  occurrence  in  this  line,  it 
is  perhaps  because  the  beauty  has  been  parcelled  out  at  last  among  so 
many;  and  a  world  of  us  who  in  that  period  of  the  picturesque  would 
have  been  digging  in  the  fields  by  day  and  sleeping  in  the  straw  by 
night  have  now  our  bright  and  pleasant  bedrooms,  cheerful  with  painted 
or  enamelled  cottage  sets,  fine  with  rosewood  or  black  walnut  and  white 
marble,  or  pretty  with  the  old-fashioned  slender  "high-posters"  of  our 
grandmothers,  with  their  snowy  valances  and  testers,  and  the  coverlets 
whose  patterns  grew  beneath  the  gay  fingers  and  glancing  thimbles  of 
the  quilting. 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


VI. 

THE  TABLE. 

HPHE  Greeks  who,  before  the  Macedonian  glory,  sat  at  their  tables,  af- 
-*~  terward  reclined  on  couches  there.    But  they  considered  it  indelicate 

for  women  to  take  that  position,  or  for  boys  to 
do  so ;  and  the  women  were  obliged  to  sit  at  the 
circular  and  half -circular  tables,  although  their 
lords  lay  on  the  long  couches  without  backs, 
their  elbows  buried  in  the  cushions,  sipping  the 
wine  poured  from  the  Massic  jars,  and  crowned 
with  roses. 

The  Romans  also  sat  at  table  until  after 
the  Second  Punic  War,  when  Scipio  African  us 
brought  in  the  custom  of  reclining;  the  dining- 
room  was  then  named  the  "  triclinium,"  with 
Eievatiou  of  Drawing-room  Table,  reference  to  the  three  long  couches  about  the 
table  ;  and  one  said,  "  Make  the  beds,"  not,  "  Lay  the  table." 

These  tables,  although  of  various  shapes,  were  preferably  round  when 
used  for  repasts,  as  the  old  Egyptian  dining -table  was  —  a  circular  top- 
piece  upon  a  pedestal.  In  handsome  specimens  the  pedestal  was  a  piece 
of  carved  work,  a  caryatid  or  the  figure  of  a  slave  upholding  the  slab. 
When  they  were  of  greater  size,  they  had  several  legs,. but  the  most  cus- 
tomary number  was  three,  usually  bending  inward ;  sometimes  plain  sup- 
ports, sometimes  representing  the  various  sphinxes,  or  else  a  satyr,  or  the 
beasts  of  whose  sports  and  struggles  the  Romans  were  so  fond — the  lion, 
the  panther,  the  tiger ;  sometimes  the  legs  and  haunches  of  leopards  up- 
holding sphinxes  with  outstretched  wings  ;  sometimes  a  group  of  centaurs. 
Frequently  these  articles  were  pieces  of  great  extravagance,  made  of  the 
precious  metals  richly  damasked,  of  ivory,  of  the  costly  woods  of  luxury 
whose  growth  had  been  dwarfed  and  knotted  and  twisted  so  as  to  produce 
wonderful  variegations  of  grain  and  surface,  and  veins  of  brilliant  coloring. 
Cicero  is  said  to  have  paid  the  equivalent  of  nearly  fifty  thousand  dollars 
for  one  of  these  tables. 

Besides  these  superb  things,  there  were  smaller  and  daintier  tables  both 


THE  TABLE. 


41 


with  Romans  and  Greeks,  tripods  and  gueridons,  and  little  round  pieces 
on  a  column  for  work  and  flowers;  and  it  is  at  such  a  table  as  one  of 
those  that  ladies  are  represented  in  a  picture  of  the  fifteenth  century 
standing  and  playing  cards  with  a  courtier. 

But  before  that  little  evidence  of  luxury  had  been  revived  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages  there  were  long  centuries  when  the  bench  and  the  chest  were  all 
the  table  there  was,  save  where,  among  the  exceptionally  rich  and  stately, 
the  horseshoe  form  had  been  preserved  from  the  use  of  the  conquered 
Southern  race,  and  was  spread  upon  occasion  of  banquets  of  ceremony. 
The  table  which  succeeded  the  bench  appears  to  have  been  a  broad  board, 
or  a  number  of  boards  bound  together  and  laid  upon  folding  trestles.  It 
is  perhaps  from  this  that  the  use  of  the  word  "board"  arises  as  synony- 
mous with  "table."  The  rapidity  with  which  in  the  great  halls  of  the 
chateaux,  says  Viollet-le-Duc,  "  one  erected  and  took  away  the  tables  either 
for  dining  or  for  playing  indicates  that  they  were  only  made  of  broad 
panels  placed  upon  folding  trestles."  The  form  used,  whatever  it  was, 
was  generally  derived  from  the  form  that  happened  to  be  employed  in  the 
next  abbey  or  monastery,  for  it  was  to  the  Church  that  was  due  the  pres- 
ervation of  most  of  such  decencies  of  life  as  had  previously  been  wrought 
out.  Protected  from  raid  and  rapine,  growing  rich  on  the  dues  paid  by  a 
superstitious  horde,  loving  comfort  and  luxury  and  beauty,  this  preserva- 
tion that  was  impossible  to  others  was  unavoidable  with  the  beneficiaries 
of  the  Church. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  both  cloths  and  napkins  were  in  use.  At 
first  the  cloths  hung  only  to  hide  the  trestles,  afterward  covering  the 
whole  arrangement,  and  the  napkins  coming  into  the  receipt  of  great  dis- 
tinction, being  finally  often  made  of  silk  and  often  fringed  with  gold — all 
of  which  did  not,  perhaps,  tend  to  their  cleanliness.  Certain  of  the  an- 
cients, by-the-way,  had  napkins  which,  after  using,  they  always  threw  in 
the  fire,  they  being  woven  of  the  asbestos  or  of  some  other  incombustible 
fibre.  The  fire  simply  cleansed  them  by  burning  off  the  soil,  and  they 
came  out  white  and  purified. 

In  the  pictures  taken  from  the  old  illuminated  manuscripts  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  we  frequently  see  the  table  of  honor  laid  across  the  platform  at 
the  upper  end  of  the  hall.  The  principal  personage,  guest  or  master,  sat 
in  the  middle  of  this  table,  with  a  canopy  that  usually  stretched  over  his 
head  alone  of  all  present,  although  this  was  not  arbitrary.  Nobody  sat 
on  the  other  side,  as  there  the  servants  waited.  If  there  were  a  greater 
number  of  guests  than  could  here  be  seated  comfortably,  they  were  ranged 
on  one  side  of  each  of  the  twro  tables  that  ran  down  the  hall  at  right  angles 
with  the  first  one.    Very  grand  personages  at  their  entertainments  were 


42  ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 

wont  to  sit  at  their  own  table  alone,  a  long  and  narrow  table  beneath  a 
dais,  on  a  floor  elevated  some  inches  above  the  rest,  with  bench  and  foot- 
stool;  and  from  there  they  sent  choice  morsels  off  their  own  dishes  to 

some  of  the  favored  guests  at  the  other 
tables.  In  more  private  life,  when  the 
repast  was  finished,  the  servitors  cleared 
it  away,  and  the  family  or  ,the  guests 
]3layed  dice  and  checkers  on  the  board 
— the  favorite  domestic  amusements  of 
the  Middle  Ages.  Some  great  halls  had 
fixed  tables  of  stone,  and  a  certain  fa- 
mous one  was  so  large  that  the  clerks 
used  it  as  a  stage  for  their  farces  and 
mummeries,  and  it  was  always  dressed 
for  royal  feasts  or  public  dinners  of 
state.  This,  however,  was  no  isolated 
circumstance,  as  in  the  time  between 
the  mighty  courses — which  at  those  vast 
royal  feasts  were  sometimes  served  by 
knights  on  horseback — it  was  not  at  all 
uncommon  for  those  who  had  the  amuse- 
ment of  the  festival  in  hand  to  present 
plays  and  fencing  matches,  and  recite 
ballads,  mounted  upon  these  tables. 
The  meats  and  wines  were  on  buffets  and  credences,  the  servitors  car- 
rying to  the  table  only  the  plate  on  which  the  carver  had  laid  the  slice  as 
lie  cut  it,  and  the  hanap  containing  the  wine  which  the  taster  had  already 
tried.  When  the  number  of  guests  was  very  large,  the  great  dishes  and 
pieces  montees  were  put  on  the  board  to  be  looked  over,  and  then  taken 
away  to  the  carving-table.  As  one  side  was  left  "  free  for  service,"  the 
guests  were  excellently  waited  on,  and  had  every  opportunity  of  taking 
their  choice  while  being  served ;  but  conversation  and  convivial  inter- 
change of  gayety  must  have  suffered  by  the  method  of  seating. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  splendor  about  these  mediaeval  tables,  and 
on  the  buffets  and  dressers  where  the  draperies  and  the  golden  and  jew- 
elled cups  made  superb  show;  there  were  pitchers  and  cups  and  vases  and 
bowls  of  gold  and  silver,  baskets  of  silver,  enamelled  knives,  forks  like 
pincers,  and  the  grand  surtout.  Goldsmithery  was  far  in  advance  of  the 
other  arts,  and  in  England  the  goldsmiths  already  stood  at  the  head  of 
their  trade,  and  wonderful  work  was  lavished  on  this  surtout,  which  repre- 
sented monuments,  fountains,  sculptures,  and  huge  vases  or  craters  up- 


Medieval  Table  of  Great  Personages. 


THE  TABLE. 


43 


holding  a  series  of  smaller  ones.  This  also  was  derived  from  the  usage  of 
antiquity,  where  there  was  a  glittering  centre-piece,  renewed  at  every 
course,  one  of  which  is  described  as  an  ass  in  bronze  carrying  pannier-  of 
silver,  from  which  slowly  dripped  some  delicious  sauce  upon  the  dish 
below. 

In  the  Renaissance  more  attention  was  paid  to  the  beauty  of  the  table 
than  ever  before,  and  such  artists  as  Jean  Goujon,  Bachelier,  Philibert 
de  l'Orme,  Crispin  de  Passe,  and  Ducerceau  expended  their  taste  and  skill 
upon  its  designs  and  sculptures.    Some  idea  of  the  magnificence  of  the 


French  Renaissance  Table. 


tables  then,  and  of  that  of  their  equipment  when  used  for  dining,  may  be 
gathered  from  the  description  which  Benvenuto  Cellini  gives  of  a  salt- 
cellar that  he  made  for  King  Francis,  since,  where  minor  articles  are  so 
splendid,  the  rest  must  have  corresponded  with  them.  "  The  manner  in 
which  I  designed  them,"  he  says,  "  was  as  follows :  I  put  a  trident  into 
the  right  hand  of  the  figure  that  represented  the  sea,  and  in  the  left  a 
bark  of  exquisite  workmanship,  which  was  to  hold  the  salt ;  under  this 
figure  were  its  four  sea-horses,  the  form  of  which  in  the  breast  and  fore- 
feet resembled  that  of  a  horse,  and  all  the  hind  part  from  the  middle  that 
of  a  fish ;  the  fishes'  tails  were  entwined  with  each  other  in  a  manner  very 
pleasing  to  the  eye,  and  the  whole  group  was  placed  in  a  striking  attitude. 
This  figure  was  surrounded  by  a  variety  of  fishes  of  different  species,  and 
other  sea  animals.  The  undulation  of  the  water  was  properly  exhibited, 
and  likewise  enamelled  with  its  true  colors.  The  earth  I  represented  by  a 
beautiful  female  figure  holding  a  cornucopia  in  her  hand,  entirely  naked, 
like  the  male  figure.  In  her  left  hand  she  held  a  little  temple,  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  Ionic  order,  and  the  workmanship  very  nice ;  this  was  in- 
tended to  put  the  pepper  in.  Under  this  female  figure  I  exhibited  most 
of  the  finest  animals  which  the  earth  produces,  and  the  rock  I  partly  en- 


44 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


amelled  and  partly  left  in  gold.  I  then  fixed  the  work  in  a  base  of  black 
ebony  of  a  proper  thickness,  and  there  I  placed  four  golden  figures  in 
more  than  mezzo -relievo.  These  were  intended  to  represent  Morning, 
Noon,  Evening,  and  Night.  There  were  also  four  other  figures  of  the 
four  principal  winds,  of  the  same  size,  the  workmanship  and  enamel  of 
which  were  elegant  to  the  last  degree." 

Marquetry  was  now  profusely  used  to  ornament  the  tables,  and  the 
Martin  lacquer,  more  especially  the  tables  of  display  and  accommodation 
than  the  dining -tables,  and  they  were  made,  again,  of  the  exquisite  old 
woods,  and  of  newer  and  yet  more  beautiful  ones.  In  the  Tudor  period 
they  expanded  their  supports  into  something  elephantine,  developing 
huge  globular  masses  of  foliage,  although  with  an  ill-conceived  class- 
ical intention  in  the  custom ;  and  so  heavy  were  they,  even  those 
meant  to  pull  apart  and  extend,  that  they  were  almost  immovable  by 
means  of  their  own  weight ;  while  in  the  Quatorze  period  the  boule-work 
dissipated  all  its  power  upon  their  ornamentation,  and  made  them,  if  not 
so  purely  beautiful,  yet  glittering  past  knowledge  of  all  that  had  gone 

before.  At  a  later  date  satin  wood  and  ma- 
hogany made  the  simplest  structure  lovely, 
and  table -tops,  as  well  as  other  articles  of 
furniture,  were  decorated  with  the  painted 
medallions  of  Cipriani  and  Angelica  Kauff- 
mann. 

At  this  time  tables  as  well  as  everything 
else  had  become  a  base  for  unnecessary  and 
ill -adapted  ornament.  The  drawing-room 
tables  were  frequently  set  upon  a  series  of 
aqueduct-like  arches  far  too  strong  for  the 
light  weight  above  them,  pendants  were 
dropped  from  the  top  expressive  of  noth- 
ing, veneering  heightened  their  brilliancy 
and  added  to  their  instability,  and  pieces  of  turned  and  carved  wood  were 
glued  upon  them,  instead  of  the  same  ornament  being  carved  out  of  them. 
In  the  time  of  Queen  Anne  and  the  earlier  Georges,  the  Classic,  having 
conquered  the  Gothic,  was  constantly  struggling  with  the  Rococo,  and 
even  with  the  Chinese;  but  Chippendale  and  Sheraton,  in  spite  of  some 
sacrifices  to  the  Moloch  of  the  hour,  made  a  few  excellent  designs  for 
furniture,  among  them  some  for  tables.  Several  of  Chippendale's  that 
are  exceedingly  pretty  have  a  little  open-work  gallery,  something  like 
that  of  the  abacus  —  a  small  table  with  a  standing  rim  to  keep  things 
from  falling  off,  used  by  the  Romans  —  running  round  the  edge,  prob- 


Flemish  Tables. 


THE  TABLE. 


45 


ably  oat  of  deference  to  the  love  of  tea  and  china  that  was  just  then 
epidemic. 

To-day  we  employ  freely  whatever  beautiful  forms  have  been  in- 
vented when  not  altogether  beyond  onr  reach  ;  but  we  discard  the  bar- 
barons  splendor  of  onr  ancestors,  and  consider  onr  plain  dining -tables 
beautiful  enough  when  their  china  and  silver  and  glass  and  snowy  damask 
are  relieved  by  a  plenty  of  brilliant  exotics.  The  dinner-table  at  the  Ex- 
ecutive Mansion  of  our  country,  on  the  occasion  of  a  dinner  of  ceremo- 
ny, is  laid  with  fine  linen,  exquisite  china  and  glass,  gold-washed  knives 
and  forks.  A  small  bouquet  and  a 
cluster  of  colored  wineglasses  adorn 
each  plate,  and  the  central  ornament 
is  a  great  vase,  running  over  with 
flowers,  that  stands  in  a  long  flat 
mirror  laid  down  the  middle  of  the 
table,  and  edged  with  smaller  flow- 
ers. But  what  sort  of  a  comparison 
does  it  bear,  what  sort  of  a  com- 
parison do  any  of  the  tables  of  our 
gorging,  guzzling  ancestry  bear  to 
the  description  of  a  Roman  dinner- 
table  two  thousand  years  ago,  as  the 
author  of  "  Salathiel "  gives  it  to  us  ?  "  The  guests  before  me  were  fifty 
or  sixty  splendidly  dressed  men,  attended  by  a  crowd  of  domestics  attired 
with  scarcely  less  splendor,  for  no  man  thought  of  coming  to  the  banquet 
in  the  robes  of  ordinary  life.  The  embroidered  couches,  themselves  strik- 
ing objects,  allowed  the  ease  of  position  at  once  delightful  in  the  relaxing 
climates  of  the  South,  and  capable  of  combining  with  every  grace  of  the 
human  figure.  At  a  slight  distance  the  table,  loaded  with  plate  glittering 
under  a  profusion  of  lamps,  and  surrounded  by  couches  thus  covered  by 
rich  draperies,  was  like  a  central  source  of  light  radiating  in  broad  shafts 
of  every  brilliant  hue.  The  wealth  of  the  patricians  and  their  intercourse 
with  the  Greeks  made  them  masters  of  the  first  performances  of  the  arts. 
Copies  of  the  most  famous  statues,  and  groups  of  sculpture  in  the  pre- 
cious metals,  trophies  of  victories,  models  of  temples,  were  mingled  with 
vases  of  flowers  and  lighted  perfumes.  Finally,  covering  and  closing  all, 
was  a  vast  scarlet  canopy,  which  combined  the  groups  beneath  to  the  eye, 
and  threw  the  whole  into  the  form  that  a  painter  would  love." 


Modern  Gothic  Table. 


46 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


VII 


4 


THE  SIDEBOARD. 


FKOM  a  little  article  that  stood  beside  the  altar  in  the  churches,  some- 
thing which  was  neither  a  bench  nor  a  table,  being  too  high  for  the 
first  and  too  small  for  the  second,  bnt  on  which  were  deposited  the  cup 

and  bell  and  other  articles  used  by 
the  priest  in  offering  the  mass,  orig- 
inated several  of  our  most  important 
household  articles.  It  soon  became 
apparent  that  this  was  altogether  too 
handy,  a  piece  of  furniture  to  be  sur- 
rendered to  a  single  usage.  It  was 
presently  transferred,  or  rather  adopt- 
ed, into  the  dwelling,  and  from  this 
little  credence,  as  it  is  called,  sprung 
the  etagere  of  our  drawing-rooms, 
the  sideboard  of  our  dining-rooms, 
the  dresser  of  our  kitchens,  and  even 
the  wash-stand  of  our  bedrooms. 

This  article,  up  to  the  thirteenth 
century,  was  circular  in  its  form, 
somewhat  like  a  little  tripod  with  a 
shelf  between  its  legs  near  the  floor ; 
but  later  it  became  square  and  ob- 
long, the  top  serving  for  a  shelf  ad- 
ditional to  that  between  the  legs,  and 
under  the  top  a  small  locked  cup- 
board, opening  with  two  doors,  like 
that  of  a  cabinet.    This  is  the  form  in  which  we  know  the  credence  to-day. 

At  first  it  was  put  near  the  dining-table,  and  was  used  for  the  tasting- 
cups  that  in  those  wicked  times  the  servants  of  every  lord  were  obliged  to 
use  before  waiting  on  their  masters,  as  a  security  against  the  fine  art  of 
poisoning. 

A  piece  of  furniture  in  the  direct  descent  from  this  is  the  dumb-waiter, 


Modern  Gothic  Sideboard. 


THE  SIDEBOARD. 


47 


and  not  only  the  one  which  to-day  slides  np  and  down  between  the  floors, 
but  also  the  little  servants  which  was  the  original  credence  on  rollers 
pushed  round  the  table  from  guest  to  guest,  and  carrying  such  things 
as  were  needed,  so  that  one  might  enjoy  the  re- 
past without  a  bevy  of  servants  at  the  back,  or 
without  rising  to  wait  on  one's  self.  "It  was  at 
the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,"  says  M. 
Viollet-le-Duc,  "  when  a  general  reaction  set  in 
against  the  tiresome  etiquette  of  the  grand  reign, 
that  the  credence  became  the  servante.  The  gen- 
tleman who  had  a  score  of  servants  in  his  house 
found  it  insupportable  to  eat  with  three  or  four 
varlets  standing  by,  ready  with  the  fresh  plate 
and  pouring  out  the  wine.  He  had  the  credence 
drawn  up  to  the  table,  closed  the  door  upon  his 
lacke}Ts,  and  then  could  chat  at  his  ease  with  the 
two,  three,  or  four  guests  at  his  table.  Casters 
were  put  on  the  feet  of  the  credence,  and  it 
took  a  name  indicating  its  use.  To-day  the  least 
shopkeeper  who  hires  a  man  would  feel  dishon- 
ored if  he  were  not  waited  on  by  him  person- 
ally, and  if  he  invites  a  friend,  free  to  render 
the  repast  wearisome  as  at  a  hotel  table,  the 
lackey  is  sure  to  stand  beside  his  chair." 

But  this  modest  demeanor  was  one  very  foreign  to  the  nature  of  the 
credence,  which  was  really  that  of  display,  and  such  was  by  no  means  the 
use  made  of  the  early  credence.  It  stood  behind  the  master,  carrying  the 
most  costly  of  his  cups  and  vases,  and  such  pieces  of  goldsmith's  work  as 
he  possessed  ;  and  from  being  at  first  very  simple  and  un ornamented,  with 
the  growth  of  splendor  it  became  a  sumptuous  thing  itself.  It  was 
doubled  and  quadrupled  in  size,  enriched  with  carving  and  with  the 
most  exquisite  iron-work  in  the  locks  and  hinges  to  its  little  doors,  given 
a  back  on  which  was  carved  the  family  escutcheon,  and  at  last  over  the 
back  a  dais  was  raised ;  and  with  that  we  have  the  complete  sideboard  of 
the  present  day  in  its  stateliest  guise,  although  we  oftenest  see  it  without 
the  crowning  dais. 

There  were,  however,  various  modifications  of  this  shape  on  the  way. 
When  used  merely  for  the  display  of  splendid  possessions  in  plate  and 
jewellery,  it  was  unprovided  with  the  little  locked  cupboard  beneath,  those 
being  kept  in  another  article  of  furniture  called  the  buffet,  and  brought 
out  for  show  upon  the  credence,  which  was  presently  built  up  with  two, 


Early  Credence. 


48 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


three,  or  more  shelves,  and  was  exactly  like  the  etagere  of  the  modern 
drawing-room.  This  was  toward  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  when 
the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  dazzled  all  France  by  their  splendor,  and  every 
lord  tried  to  rival  his  neighbor  m  fetes  and  exhibitions  of  treasure.  Mean- 
time the  buffet  was  really  quite  another  thing  from  the  article  which  we 
now  call  by  that  name.    Now,  it  is  not  only  the  place  to  deposit  the  treas- 


Mocleru  Gothic  Bric-a-brac  Cabinet. 


ure,  but  to  exhibit  it  permanently  also,  as  the  glazed  buffets  fixed  in  the 
corner  of  the  dining-room  of  many  an  old  mansion  testify.  But  the  real 
buffet  five  hundred  years  ago  was  a  temporary  affair,  and  the  name  having 
been  at  first  given  to  the  closet  where  were  shut  up  the  precious  articles, 
wras  afterward  given  to  the  temporary  erection  dressed  to  assist  in  the  dis- 
play of  a  great  feast.  The  credence,  that  primarily  had  stood  behind  the 
master's  seat,  after  it  put  on  several  shelves  and  a  back  and  top,  was  placed 


THE  SIDEBOARD. 


49 


against  the  wall ;  but  the  buffet  was  placed  in  the  central  space  inside  of  the 
table  shaped  like  a  horseshoe  and  frequently  used  at  state  banquets,  cov- 
ered with  rich  stuffs,  usually  gold-wrought,  and  piled  step  above  step  with 
gold  and  silver  plate,  cups,  vases,  and  glasses,  when  by  good  fortune  those 
were  owned.  It  used  to  be  the  custom  to  "offer  a  buffet"  to  sovereigns 
and  ambassadors  upon  their  entrance  of  city  or  fortress — that  is,  to  present 
refreshments  thus  magnificently  set  out — the  buffet  itself  and  all  that  it 
contained,  either  of  viands  or  plate,  belonging  then  to  the  person  thus  hon- 
ored. It  was  from  the  buffet  of  state  banquets  that  the  squires,  waiting 
on  their  masters  and  mistresses,  took  the  various  plates  and  cups  for  dis- 
tribution, and  it  was  there  that  they  found  the  dainties  and  the  meats  and 
wines,  and  it  seems  also  to  have  served  as  carving  -  table,  the  dishes  not 
being  placed  before  the  guests,  but  after  our  modern  custom  d  la  Busse. 
The  buffet,  on  the  whole,  would  seem  to  have  been  a  contingent  of  state 
display,  and  we  have  proudly  transferred  the  name  to  the  exhibition  of 
wmatever  display  we  can  make  ourselves. 

But  in  the  rooms  of  the  ladies,  and  in  the  halls  of  ceremony  corre- 
sponding to  the  drawing-rooms  of  to-day,  the  credence,  with  its  shelves 
and  back,  that  had  become  the  thing  sim- 
ilar to  the  etagere,  and  now  called  the 
dressoir,  was  no  less  an  object  of  glitter 
and  parade.  Etiquette  severely  prescribed 
the  number  of  shelves  and  the  shape  of 
the  back  and  of  the  dais  suitable  to  the 
degree  of  the  owner,  and  nobody  thought 
of  transgressing  —  the  original  credence, 
somewhat  increased  in  size,  answering  for 
any  one  beneath  the  rank  of  a  countess. 

The  sense  of  grace  and  color  and  the 
general  aptitude  for  decoration  in  those 
old  generations,  beyond  anything  common 
with  us,  wTere  never  more  apparent  than  in 
the  decoration  of  this  piece  of  furniture. 
In  our  day  we  are  usually  content  to  dis- 
play our  old  china  and  our  curiosities, 
without  drapery,  on  the  bare  shelf  or 
against  the  bare  wall;  but  the  mediseval 
taste  knew  the  potency  of  light  and  shade 
in  falling  folds  of  splendid  stuff,  and  never 

failed  to  make  use  of  them  where  possible.  Thus  they  hung  across  the 
back  of  the  credence  richly  colored  and  figured  cloth,  wThen  it  was  not 


Dutch  lieuaissauce  Cabinet. 


50 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


made  more  attractive  by  carving,  and  laid  on  every  shelf  a  drapery  falling 
over  the  front  and  down  the  ends,  bordered  and  fringed  and  exquisitely 

wrought,  making  a  "sunshine  in 
a  shady  place ;"  and,  being  thus 
dressed,  the  shelves  were  orna- 
mented with  the  richest  results 
of  the  goldsmith's  art, 
with  antiques,  with  cups 
from  Mu ran o,  with  the 


Italian  Cabinet,  Ebony  inlaid  with  Ivory;  Carvings  illustrating  Jerusalem  Delivered,  Sixteenth  Century; 

Venetian  Chair. 

spice  boxes,  the  comfit  pots,  the  perfume  cases  of  the  day,  and  must  have 
been  picturesque  and  splendid  past  imagination.  Some  reminiscence  of 
this  drapery  is  found  in  the  tiny  ornamental  curtain  occasionally  hung  be- 
fore some  recess  of  the  modern  reproduction  of  the  sideboard.  When  at 
length  the  Italian  took  hold  of  this  affair,  he  made  of  it  a  charming  non- 
descript, full  of  grace  and  dazzle,  and  almost  original  in  character,  being 
neither  closed  cabinet  nor  open  etagere.  He  made  it  of  ebony,  and  inlaid 
it  with  turquoise,  carnelian,  and  rock-crystal,  and  nothing  was  more  strik- 
ing, except  it  were  the  real  cabinets  sprung  from  the  locked  and  closed 
armory,  one  of  wThich  a  Florentine  traveller  describes  to  us,  "  which  had 
about  it  eight  Oriental  columns  of  alabaster,  on  each  whereof  was  placed  a 
head  of  Csesar,  covered  with  a  canopy  so  richly  set  with  precious  stones 
that  they  resembled  a  firmament  of  stars.  Within  it  was  our  Saviour's 
Passion,  and  the  Twelve  Apostles  in  amber.  This  cabinet  was  valued  at 
two  hundred  thousand  crowns." 


THE  MIRROR  AND  GLASS. 


51 


VIII. 

THE  MIRROR  AND  GLASS. 

A WATER-COLOR  of  Alma  Tadema's  in  the  Centennial  Exposition 
represented  the  former  wife  of  one  of  the  Merovingian  kings  sitting 
at  her  lattice,  while  the  new  wife,  in  the  group  without,  receives  the  rite 
of  baptism  —  sitting  at  her 
lattice,  and  contemplating 
the  beauty  that  has  been 
discarded,  in  a  hand-mirror. 

It  is  this  hand -mirror, 
round  and  small,  and  with 
a  handle,  that  was  the  only 
glass  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
And  this  was  bequeathed  to 
that  period  by  the  periods 
long  past,  many  specimens 
of  its  sort  being  still  pre- 
served in  the  museums. 

With  the  ancients  these 
little  mirrors  were  made  of  the  various  metals  and  their  alloys — these  of 
copper,  those  of  silver,  others  even  of  gold,  and  some  of  gold  with  a  face 
of  silver  for  better  reflection.  Sometimes  the  case  was  of  bronze,  some- 
times of  ivory  ;  always  it  was  richly  decorated,  the  handle  itself  represent- 
ing a  Cupid,  a  Narcissus,  or  a  vaulting  figure  holding  up  the  hoop  through 
which  it  seems  ready  to  spring,  the  hoop  framing  the  mirror.  Sometimes 
the  mirror  and  its  surroundings  made  an  ornamental  group ;  and  we  read 
of  a  Venus  to  whom  a  Cupid  offers  the  glass,  as  if  Love  itself  had  nothing 
more  beautiful  to  offer  than  the  reflection.  Seneca  has  declared  that  "  the 
dowry  that  the  Senate  once  bestowed  upon  the  daughter  of  Scipio  would 
no  longer  suffice  to  pay  for  the  mirror  of  a  freedwoman." 

The  great  slabs  of  darkened  glass  and  of  obsidian,  in  the  panels  of 
rooms,  doubtless  served  the  same  purpose  as  mirrors.  But  none  of  those, 
of  course,  could  have  been  handed  down,  and  knowledge  of  the  manufact- 
ure of  fine  glass  was  nearly  lost  in  the  Dark  Ages.    It  was  not  till  a 


Modern  Gothic  Girandoles. 


52 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


couple  of  the  glass-makers  of  Murano,  in  Venice,  learned  the  secret  of  sil- 
vering the  back  of  a  sheet  of  glass  that  our  present  mirror  came  into  ex- 
istence. These  glass  -  makers  received  the  monopoly  of  the  manufacture 
for  a  score  of  years ;  and,  like  the  flash  of  its  own  lustre,  the  glass  mirror, 
in  its  Venetian  frame  of  carved  and  gilded  wood,  sped  over  Europe,  and 
became  a  coveted  and  treasured  possession. 

The  first  Venetians  who  settled  in  the  archipelago  of  the  Adriatic 
brought  with  them  to  the  Dogano  from  the  main-land  the  knowledge  of 
glass-making.  The  glass-works  were  at  first  everywhere  in  the  city,  and 
the  workers  were  extraordinarily  skilful,  but  the  smoke  of  the  furnaces 
became  so  troublesome,  and  the  danger  of  conflagration  so  great,  that  in 
the  fourteenth  century  they  were  all  transferred  to  the  island  of  Murano. 
It  was  not  merely  mirrors,  though,  that  the  Venetians  made,  but  innu- 
merable other  articles  of  glass — vases,  goblets,  cups,  lamps,  beads,  counter- 
feit precious  stones,  perhaps  none  of  them  more  beautiful  than  the  old 
Roman  glasses  had  been  centuries  before,  but  much  in  advance  of  any 
intervening  work.  Certainly  it  was  not  more  beautiful  than  that  Roman 
glass  is  as  we  have  its  fragments  to-day,  where  disintegration  and  decom- 
position of  the  outer  scales  have  given  the  once  plain  clear  glass  the 
most  wonderful  rainbow  tints — one  may  see  the  same  effect  in  the  glass 
of  the  Cesnola  collection — flakes  of  the  tenderest  green,  the  purest  blue, 
the  pearliest  white,  variegated  with  a  sheen  of  changing  flame  and  ruby 
red. 

There  was  glass,  though,  before  the  Roman,  whether  we  believe 
Pliny's  old  fable  or  not.  A  bead,  the  little  bauble  of  a  queen  whose  name 
it  bears,  and  whose  ashes  have  long  since  flown  to  the  four  winds,  has  been 
handed  down  to  us  from  a  time  more  than  three  thousand  years  past. 
The  Egyptians  had  a  free  use  of  glass,  we  are  informed,  more  than  four 
thousand  years  ago.  In  some  of  those  immemorial  tombs  there  are  even 
paintings  of  the  operations  of  glass-blowing.  Vases  have  been  found  at 
Nineveh,  in  Greece,  and  upon  all  the  Mediterranean  shores.  The  ancients 
were  acquainted,  too,  with  the  use  of  the  various  metallic  oxides  in  color- 
ing the  glass,  as  analysis  of  their  fragments  shows ;  and  the  Romans,  we 
know,  could  stain  it,  engrave  it,  and  work  it  on  the  lathe.  They  imitated 
gems  with  it,  and  made  finely  tinted  mosaics  of  it.  Pliny  speaks  of  the 
murrhine  glass,  but  that  is  now  generally  considered  to  have  been  fluor- 
spar, or  an  imitation  of  that  substance.  Whatever  its  origin,  nothing  is 
more  exquisite — as  ethereally  transparent  and  delicate  as  if  it  were  solid- 
ified out  of  moonlight  or  ocean  foam.  A  tremendous  price  was  paid  for 
their  cups  and  vases  by  the  emperors  and  patricians :  if  they  were  equal  to 
the  celebrated  Portland  Vase,  they  were  worth  it.    That,  an  object  some 


THE  MIRROR  AND  GLASS. 


53 


ten  inches  in  height,  had  on  its  blue  ground  an  opaque  white  glass  super- 
imposed, which  was  afterward  cut  away,  like  a  cameo,  in  a  representation 
of  the  marriage  of  King  Peleus  with  the  sea-nymph  Thetis,  leaving  the 
white  figures  in  relief  upon  the  dark-blue  surface— a  vase  which  is  often 
imitated  in  the  blue  jasper  Wedgwood-ware.  One  of  the  Roman  emper- 
ors is  said  to  have  put  to  death  a  workman  who  discovered  malleable  glass, 
as  the  other  glass-makers  foresaw  the  ruin  of  their  trade  through  his  in- 
vention, and  their  clamor  was  not  to  be  disregarded  by  one  who  proba- 
bly received  their  tribute  ;  so  the  man  and  his  secret  perished  together. 
When  the  power  went  to  Constantinople,  and  with  the  power  the  wealth 
and  the  art  that  follows  wealth  and  power,  glass-making  went  too ;  and 
there  are  traditions  of  much  beautiful  glass-work  in  the  city.  But  al- 
though some  specimens  seem  to  be  preserved,  they  are  not  absolutely  au- 
thentic. Doubtless  it  was  by  means  of  their  connection  with  that  place 
that  the  Venetians  improved  their  own  work  from  time  to  time,  until  the 
overthrow  and  capture  of  the  city  gave  them  the  opj^ortunity  of  appro- 
priating all  the  processes  with  which  the  conquered  were  familiar. 

In  the  sixth  century  the  Persians  worked  fancifully  in  glass,  and 
pieces  showing  the  Oriental  skill,  spoken  of  as  "  Damascus  work,"  found 
their  way  to  Europe  after  that  time ;  of  these  the  glass  known  as  "  The 
Luck  of  Eden  Hall,"  still  preserved  unbroken,  is  perhaps  the  most  fa- 
mous. It  was  somewhere  in  the  eleventh  century  that  painted  glass 
began  to  be  used  in  windows.  Mosaics  of  small  pieces  of  colored  glass, 
set  in  simple  diapered  design,  and  stained  while  in  a  state  of  flux  by 
the  admixture  of  coloring  matter,  may  have  been  used  before ;  but  the 
painted  glass  was  produced  by  painting  the  design  upon  clear  glass  with 
certain  pigments  that,  under  strong  tiring,  combined  with  the  glass  and 
became  fixed  like  enamel.  The  colors  of  the  painted  glass,  of  course, 
could  not  compare  for  depth,  richness,  and  lustre  with  glass  stained  in 
the  manufacture ;  in  this  the  separate  tints  were  always  produced  by 
separate  bits  of  glass,  and  the  leads  of  the  settings  that  united  them 
formed  the  main  lines  of  the  drawing.  The  glass -painters  of  England 
in  the  thirteenth  century  stood  very  high;  the  French  were  working 
glass  in  the  fourteenth  century;  and  the  Germans  produced  some  very 
interesting  examples — long  straight  glasses  of  a  pale  bottle-green,  some- 
times ornamented  with  enamels,  sometimes  with  countless  projecting  tiny 
bosses :  the  beautiful  ruby  Bohemian  glass  was  produced  at  a  later  day — 
after  the  seventeenth  century.  In  the  same  century  a  colony  of  work- 
men from  Venice  was  established  in  England,  and  produced  many  of  the 
old  bevelled  mirrors  now  so  valued.  In  the  next  century  the  French 
engraved  upon  a  wheel  very  daintily ;  but  we  obtain  the  same  effect  to- 


54: 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


day  by  means  of  a  powerful  acid,  the  hydro -fluoric,  which  reacts  upon 
the  surface  in  the  desired  design. 

The  Chinese,  although  long  acquainted  with  the  secrets  of  glass-mak- 
ing, have  never  been  celebrated  for  their  success  in  it,  although  one  of 
their  varieties  slightly  resembles  one  of  the  Venetian  products. 

The  Venetians,  indeed,  for  centuries  enjoyed  the  distinction  of  being 
the  chief  workers  of  the  world  in  glass.  They  enamelled  and  gilded 
glass ;  decorated  it  with  scale-wrork,  the  scales  done  in  gold  with  a  tiny 
atom  of  color  enamelled  upon  each  point ;  they  crackled  it  by  sudden 
cooling  and  fresh  expansion  ;  they  marbled  it,  imitating  jasper,  lapis,  tor- 
toise-shell, mother -of  -  pearl ;  they  made  mosaics  called  inillefiori  glass; 
they  reticulated  it  in  the  pattern  that  seemed  to  be  inlaid  within  its  glaz- 
ing; and  they  twisted  it  into  a  filigree  almost  as  delicate  as  lace,  and 
which  the  best  modern  effort  has  not  been  able  to  equal  ;  they  wrought 
it  out  to  an  exceeding  thinness,  and  it  had  a  lightness,  also,  under  their 
hands  that  is  not  found  in  any  of  our  glass  in  whose  production  lead  is 
used.  Many  of  the  processes  were  kept  secret,  and  are  lost,  perhaps  irre- 
coverably, although  urgent  efforts  are  now  being  made  in  Venice  to  restore 
the  manufacture  to  its  pristine  glory.  But  its  chief  beauty,  after  all,  was 
in  its  form,  glass  in  the  blowing  lending  itself  to  a  thousand  shapes, 
according  to  the  grace  of  the  flowing  material  and  the  quick  invention 
of  the  blower ;  and  when  to  these  marvels  of  delicacy  and  outline  were 
added  the  marvels  of  color  and  of  variegation,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Vene- 
tian glass  should  carry  off  the  palm  with  the  lovers  of  beauty.  The  wTork 
of  Browning's  Gypsies  was  child's  play  to  it : 

"  Glasses  they'll  blow  you,  crystal  clear, 
Where  just  a  faint  cloud  of  rose  shall  appear, 
As  if  in  pure  water  you  dropped  and  let  die 
A  bruised  black-blooded  mulberry ; 
And  that  other  sort,  the  crowning  pride, 
With  long  white  threads  distinct  inside, 
Like  the  lake  flower's  fibrous  roots  that  dangle 
Loose  such  a  length  and  never  tangle, 
Where  the  bold  sword-lily  cuts  the  clear  waters, 
And  the  cup-lily  couches  with  all  her  white  daughters." 

When  they  had  reached  such  perfection  in  other  glass,  and  the  State  itself 
took  such  an  interest  in  the  manufacture,  it  was  not  remarkable  that  the 
mirrors  of  the  Venetians  should  soon  have  been  equally  famous.  For  the 
first  twro  hundred  years  the  largest  were  seldom  more  than  four  or  five 
feet  square;  in  the  seventeenth  century,  "shaped"  at  the  top;  in  the 
eighteenth,  shaped  at  the  top  and  bottom  too.     It  was  in  the  time  of 


THE  MIRROR  AND  GLASS. 


55 


Louis  Quinze  that  the  painted  or  gilded 
panel  was  let  in  at  the  top.  Traceries 
were  sunk  around  the  edges  at  the  back, 
glittering  through,  and  the  edges  were 
bevelled,  sometimes  for  the  depth  of  an 
inch,  the  bevel  observing  all  the  angles 
and  curves  of  the  frame.  This,  Mr. 
Pollen  tells  us,  gave  "  preciousness  and 
prismatic  light  to  the  whole  glass.  It  is 
of  great  difficulty  in  execution,  the  plate 
being  held  by  the  workman  over  his 
head,  and  the  edge  cut  by  grinding. 
The  feats  of  skill  of  this  kind,  in  the 
form  of  interrupted  curves  and  short 
lines  and  angles,  are  rarely  accomplished 
by  modern  workmen,  ami  the  angle  of 
the  bevel  itself  is  generally  too  acute,  Mirror  of  the  Time  of  Elizabeth, 

whereby  the  prismatic  light  produced  by  this  portion  of  the  mirror  is  in 
violent  and  too  showy  contrast  to  the  remainder." 

The  frames  of  many  of  these  glasses  were  fine  and  bold  in  free  carving 


of  the  soft  woods,  gilt. 


Mirror  of  the  Time  of  Charles  II 


One  is  described  of  walnut  inlaid  with  other 
woods,  with  a  sliding  cover  to  the 
glass,  on  which  was  carved  a  beau- 
tiful female  head ;  another  is  en- 
tirely of  iron  damasked  in  gold  and 
silver.  There  were  but  few  mirrors 
in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  and  those 
were  not  bevelled,  although  the 
frames  were  rich  with  mixed  carv- 
ing of  strap-work  and  classical  orna- 
ment. In  Charles's  reign  they  had 
become  general,  and  were  always 
bevelled,  and  the  frame  ornately 
carved.  "  I  saw  the  queen's  rare 
cabinets  and  collection  of  china, 
which  was  wonderfully  rich  and 
plentiful,"  writes  Evelyn,  in  1G93, 
"  but  especially  a  large  cabinet,  look- 
ing-glass frame,  and  stands,  all  of 
amber,  much  of  it  white,  with  his- 
torical bass-reliefs,  and  statues  with 


56 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


medals  carved  in  them,  esteemed  worth  four  thousand  pounds,  sent  by  the 
Duke  of  Brandenburg,  whose  country  (Prussia)  abounds  with  amber  cast 
up  by  the  sea."  At  this  time  rooms  were  built  entirely  lined  with  look- 
ing-glass, including  the  ceiling.  Both  Chippendale  and  the  Adam  broth- 
ers, who  flourished  during  the  middle  and  last  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
made  good  designs  for  looking-glass  frames.  The  Adam  frames  are  par- 
ticularly tine,  in  their  way,  consisting  commonly  of  a  profusion  of  delicate 
floral  carving,  without  background  or  other  support ;  sometimes  in  soft 
wood  gilt,  and  sometimes  in  ebony.    A  mirror  bearing  the  name  of  these 


Renaissance  Table,  with  Mirror. 


brothers  is  an  oblong  panel  of  bevelled  glass  in  a  two-inch  moulding  of 
ebony,  which  encloses  in  an  oval  just  touching  the  four  sides  a  wreath 
of  rose  leaves  and  buds  and  blossoms,  cut  also  from  ebony,  the  outer 
moulding  carrying  at  the  foot  festoons  and  hanging  ends  of  the  tiny  roses 
and  tapering  buds.  Before  the  time  of  the  Adams,  though,  Grinling  Gib- 
bons carved  frames,  with  natural  representations  of  the  highest  degree  of 
beauty  and  finish  of  which  the  natural  school  is  capable,  so  that  nothing 
of  the  kind  has  ever  surpassed  his  work. 


THE  MIRROR  AND  GLASS. 


57 


At  the  time  of  Louis  Quatorze  the  large  looking-glasses  were  used  to 
increase  the  effect  of  the  splendor  of  the  style,  and  the  Pompeian  Renais- 
sance, as  it  might  be  called,  of  Louis  Seize  obtained  fine  effects  with  them. 
But  the  splendid  side  pieces  that  reflect  one  from  head  to  foot  never  have 
the  interest  of  romance  that  attaches  to  the  little  mediseval  hand-mirror 
that,  like  some  enchantment,  lets  you  into  the  world  within  its  magic 
sphere ;  and  few  large  ones  can  compare  in  beauty  to  the  smaller  Vene- 
tian ones,  whose  frames  themselves  are  made  of  the  colored  and  tangled 
filigree  glass,  till  the  whole  thing  looks  as  if  it  were  something  snatched 
from  a  foam-decked  wave  in  the  sunshine. 


58 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


IX. 

MINOR  ARTICLES. 

IN  those  sad  old  days  which  wear  so  much  romance  through  the  misty 
veil  of  time,  it  was  not  easy  to  replace  an  old  furnishing.  "  It  was 
necessary,"  says  M.  Viollet-le-Duc,  "  to  have  the  wood  sculptured,  which 
took  long;  then  to  address  one's  self  to  the  coffer -maker,  to  the  lock- 
smith ;  to  buy  stuffs  in  the  city — and  often  the  chateau  was  far  off — to 
address  one's  self  to  the  silk  merchant,  to  the  nail-maker,  to  the  fringe- 
maker,  the  canvas-maker,  the  tapestry-maker,  the  carder.  All  that  took 
time,  care,  much  money — and  money  the  feudal  lords  living  on  their  de- 
mesnes wanted  most,  the  greater  part  of  the  dues  being  paid  in  stock  and 
service.  Until  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  interior  service  of 
the  chateau  was  done  by  forced  labor.  The  difficulties  were  no  less  when 
it  was  thought  best  to  transport  to  the  residence  of  the  castellan  furni- 
tures made  at  a  distance.  It  was  necessary  then  to  claim  the  service  of 
the  vavasors,  or  of  the  villages  and  hamlets.  Such  a  canton  had  a  chariot 
dragged  by  several  pairs  of  oxen  ;  such  a  village  or  such  a  vavasor  had 
only  a  horse  and  a  car,  or  a  beast  of  burden.  The  expense,  the  difficulty 
of  obtaining  credit,  the  embarrassment  of  having  to  do  with  all  sorts  of 
furnishers,  made  one  take  care  of  the  old  furniture,  and  replace  or  aug- 
ment it  only  on  solemn  occasions." 

Besides  the  seat,  the  bed,  the  table,  the  dresser,  and  their  variations, 
there  were,  of  course,  many  minor  articles  that  contributed  to  the  make- 
up of  rooms  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  afterward,  to  some  of  which  we  have 
had  occasion  to  refer,  which  came  slowly,  one  by  one,  after  long  intervals 
of  want  made  their  requirement  felt.  Among  these  were  the  screens, 
braziers,  sconces,  chimney  furniture,  lecturns,  scriptionales,  and  the  like. 
The  screen,  insignificant  as  it  is  now,  although  still  valued  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent as  an  aid  to  beautiful  ensemble,  filled,  as  we  have  said,  an  absolute 
need  in  the  old  days.  It  was  important  to  comfort,  beauty  was  lav- 
ished upon  it ;  and  even  after  it  divided  the  great  hall  into  rooms,  as  a 
fixed  partition,  it  retained  supremacy  as  a  piece  of  movable  furniture  also. 
Its  first  form  may  have  been  in  that  of  a  hanging  curtain  of  skins  or  of 
rudely  dressed  leather;  its  latter  estate  decked  with  the  handiwork  of  the 


MINOR  ARTICLES. 


59 


ladies  in  kings'  palaces  was  splendid  enough  to  make  its  poor  beginnings 
forgotten.  In  those  immense  rooms  of  the  early  periods  the  draughts 
were  great  and  perpetual ;  chimneys,  after  their  introduction,  were  made 
of  such  size  that  the  air  was  always  moving  toward  the  vent,  and  the 
screens  were  a  necessary  of  life.  Screens  called  portieres  were  hung 
across  the  doors,  and  often  took  the  place  of  doors ;  above  them  were  lam- 
brequins boxed  in  so  as  to  exclude  the  lesser  draught  that  would  find  en- 
trance at  the  top  above  the  curtain  and  its  rod,  and  beyond  all  that  there 
was  frequently  a  sort  of  drum  built  around  the  door-way,  with  ceiling  and 
sides  and  a  draped  opening.  But  besides  such  fixtures,  there  were  the 
light  movable  ones  whose  frames  were  made  of  bronze,  of  brass  filigree, 
and  of  wonderful  carved  work ;  and  at  an  earlier  period  there  were  simpler 
ones  woven  of  osier,  some  mounted  on  feet  before  the  huge  fire  where  the 
whole  trunks  of  trees  were  burning — the  fire  that  our  ancestors  so  keenly 
appreciated.  Sometimes  these  fire-screens  were  draperies  suspended  from 
the  front  of  the  chimney-piece  that  had  a  great  open  bay  projecting  round 
the  chimney  and  over  the  hearth,  and  under  which  one  could  sit  and 
warm  one's  feet  without  scorching  the  face.  "Under  the  manteau"  was 
an  old  phrase  standing  for  confidential  matters,  and  many  a  conspiracy 
was  hatched  and  many  a  family  compact  sealed  beneath  the  great  chim- 
ney hood  where  a  score  could  sit.  The  movable  screens  were  single 
sheets  stretched  on  a  frame  and  standing  on  feet,  or  they  were  folding 
leaves,  the  valves  more  or  less  in  number;  and  we  have  them  so  to-day. 
On  these  the  gigantic  figures  of  the  arras  were  to  be  seen,  or,  later  in  the 
embroidery  of  court  ladies'  fingers,  the  king  and  his  mistress  looked  his- 
tory unblushingly  in  the  face.  As  beautiful  ones  as  any  are  to-day  of 
Eastern  manufacture — teak  frames  carved  in  involutions  of  dragons'  tails 
and  vast  liliaceous  and  rose  forms,  enclosing  segments  of  creamy  silk  on 
which  are  wrought  peacocks  with  their  spread  tails,  with  wonderful  brill- 
iancy of  color ;  cranes,  flowers,  fans,  or  the  great  folding  leaves  of  Japan- 
ese work,  where  on  the  stout  silk  leaf  after  leaf  is  adorned  with  purple 
and  crimson  and  azure  in  those  marvellously  simple  yet  effective  designs 
where  so  few  strokes  of  outline  do  such  telling  work.  One  of  the  seven- 
teenth-century diarists  speaks  of  those  of  his  own  time  which  he  saw 
when  on  a  visit  to  a  great  house  in  his  neighborhood,  describing  a  room 
with  a  "  cabinet  of  all  elegancies,  especially  Indian ;  in  the  hall  are  con- 
trivances of  Japan  screens  instead  of  wainscot,  and  there  is  an  excellent 
pendule  clock  enclosed  in  the  curious  flower-work  of  Mr.  Gibbon  in  the 
middle  of  the  vestibule.  The  landscapes  of  the  screens  represent  the 
manner  of  living  and  courtesy  of  the  Chinese." 

An  earlier  piece  of  furniture,  though,  than  the  screen — perhaps  the 


60  ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


very  earliest  of  all,  at  any  rate  in  the  usage  of  the  Dark  Ages — was  the 
chest.  Rude  enough  at  first,  although  holding  all  the  valuables,  these 
chests  afterward  were  elaborated  with  great  care  —  were  covered  with 


Chest  in  Curved  Oak  inlaid  with  Colored  Wood,  Norman  Work,  1550. 


carved  figures,  apostles  in  their  shrines  and  warriors  in  their  stalls ;  a  con- 
tinual interlacing  of  leaf  and  bough,  with  symbolical  carvings,  much  like 
that  in  the  cathedrals  in  miniature ;  the  man  enticed  by  a  lovely  female 
form  playing  on  a  musical  instrument,  the  lower  part  of  whose  body  is 
that  of  a  harpy ;  wild  beasts  and  birds  picking  at  the  flesh  of  another,  and 
representing  conscience  and  sins ;  while  other  carvings  would  be  merely 
conventional  representations  of  leafy  forms.  The  Venetian  coffers  were 
famous  for  their  beauty  and  exquisite  grace ;  others  were  vast  bulky  re- 
positories, like  the  English  "  standards,"  sufficient,  indeed,  to  be  the  hiding- 
place  of  half  a  dozen  Ginevras.  These  were  used  in  England  to  hold  the 
great  arras  and  leather  hangings  when  the  family,  having  exhausted  the 
fat  of  the  land  in  one  grant,  moved  with  all  their  possessions  to  another. 
They  constituted  the  chief  furniture  of  the  Italians,  and  were  made  with 
exhaustless  richness.  Many  of  them  were  supported  on  feet,  and  upheld 
figures  sculptured  from  the  wood  of  the  frame -work  at  all  the  angles. 
They  also  wTere  ornamented  with  carving  representing  the  story  of  various 
legends  in  the  panels,  and  carried  a  great  deal  of  gilding  on  the  carving. 
Sometimes  for  certain  vast  rooms  these  chests  were  in  sets.    We  fre- 


MINOR  ARTICLES. 


61 


quently  read  of  bridal  coffers.  These,  commonly,  were  huge  affairs,  and 
held  small  drawers,  chests  within  chests,. and  countless  odd  places  for  the 
disposal  of  the  customary  paraphernalia  of  the  occasion.  Our  immediate 
ancestors  were  almost  invariably  provided  with  rude  chests,  which,  so  late 
as  the  settlement  of  this  country,  had  not  gone  out  of  use.  They  were 
elevated  on  short  supports  answering  for  feet  and  legs,  adorned  with  some 
very  simple  carving  and  turning,  usually  with  a  series  of  plinths  and  pi- 
lasters in  wood  of  another  color,  the  chest  being  itself  of  birch  or  of  un- 
stained oak,  the  date  frequently  cut  in  the  front,  and  on  lifting  the  lid  a 
little  till  was  seen.  Gradually  these  chests,  somewhat  cumbersome  as  they 
were,  were  superseded  by  other  articles,  and  abandoned  to  base  uses,  hold- 
ing the  tools,  or  given  up  to  the  corn  in  the  barn  or  the  meal  in  the  store- 
room. But  now  everybody  who  has  had  an  ancestor  is  on  the  lookout 
for  that  ancestor's  old  chest,  to  be  furbished  and  made  presentable  in 
the  hall. 

There  are  many  conveniences  for  the  library  that  date  back  to  very 
early  days,  strange  as  it  may  seem ;  but  the  manuscripts  of  that  period 
were  jealously  guarded,  after  their  worth,  or  that  of  their  originals,  had 
once  been  recognized.  Before  the  art  of  printing,  a  hundred  volumes,  so 
called,  of  these,  manuscripts  were  a  luxury  enjoyed  only  by  prelates  and 
sovereigns.  Twenty  volumes  were  a  goodly  number  for  the  learned,  and 
there  was  made  of  them  the  most  that  could  be  made.  Enclosed  in  pre- 
cious covers,  frequently  of  golden  plates  enriched  with  gems,  or  of  in- 
tricately carved  ivory,  they  were  kept  under  lock  in  private  receptacles ; 
when  less  rich,  bound  in  vellum  or  in  boards,  they  were  fastened  in  their 
places  by  long  chains,  and  one  might  read  them>  but  could  not  take  them 
away.  For  the  use  of  the  scholar  there  was  a  lecturn,  disposed  so  as  to 
hold  the  book  and  keep  it  open.  In  the  churches  these  lecturns  were  often 
a  mere  rest  laid  upon  the  back  of  a  bird  with  outspread  wings,  most  com- 
monly the  eagle,  because  it  was  considered  that  his  flight,  being  the  high- 
est, symbolized  a  loftier  ascent  for  the  sacred  song.  In  private  use  the  lec- 
turn had  many  shapes,  pyramidal  or  circular,  with  a  little  ledge  at  the  rim, 
around  an  upright  support,  sometimes  with  compartments  beneath  for  books 
not  in  instant  use.  This  is  to-day  a  convenient  form  for  the  student,  as 
the  book  he  studies  is  held  in  place  on  top,  and  the  other  books  to  which 
he  may  constantly  have  need  to  refer,  but  with  which  he  does  not  wish  to 
lumber  his  table,  are  just  at  hand  around  the  foot.  Sometimes  the  lecturn 
is  merely  a  double  tablet  sloping  in  both  directions  and  meeting  at  the 
top  above  its  pedestal.  Ribbons  frequently  hold  the  book  open,  being  laid 
flatly  across  the  leaf,  and  having  weights  attached  to  the  end  swinging 
over  on  the  other  side.    There  are  yet  others  of  many  sides,  carrying  a 


<>-2 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


book  on  each,  that  wheel  about;  there  are  some  made  with  a  rack,  which 
is  hinged,  having  a  little  three-lobed  hook  to  alter  at  will  the  inclination  of 
the  tablet ;  and  there  are  others,  jet  simpler,  to  stand  upon  the  table  or 
desk,  with  a  swinging  shelf  to  be  advanced  or  pushed  away  at  need ;  while 
the  remainder  are,  indeed,  much  richer,  made  of  wrought  metal  covered 
with  costly  stuff  and  elaborately  ornamented.  Besides  these,  there  were 
scriptionales — a  sort  of  half  desk  to  place  on  the  table  or  bench  where  one 
wrote,  or  upon  one's  knee,  with  the  inkhorn,  a  veritable  ram's  horn,  sus- 
pended beside  it.  One  of  these  lecturns,  made  of  brass,  with  lions'  feet  on 
the  supports,  was  taken  from  the  lake  at  Newstead  Abbey ;  and  on  being 
sent  to  a  clock-maker  for  repairs,  there  were  found,  in  a  secret  receptacle 
made  by  the  hollows  of  the  brass  rods,  the  parchments,  pardons,  grants, 
maps,  and  other  documents,  which  probably  had  been  thrust  there,  and 
then  thrown  into  the  pond  for  future  recovery,  at  the  breaking-up  of  the 
monasteries. 

A 1110112:  other  minor  articles  is  a  little  seat  coming  again  into  use — a 
square  cushion,  not  very  different  from  the  tabouret,  which  was  once  a 
seat  of  distinction  at  court.  This  seat,  the  quarrel,  is  usually  made  not 
merely  as  a  cushion,  but  slightly  lifted  on  a  frame  with  casters.  Covered 
with  handsome  material,  the  handiwork  of  home,  or  some  bit  of  foreign 
stuff,  it  can  be  used  effectively  in  the  modern  drawing-room.  It  is  fre- 
quently made  of  what  seems  like  two  cushions  piled  one  upon  another. 
The  use  of  it  may  be  a  remnant  of  that  fashion  of  sitting  on  carpets  and 
cushions  which  obtained  briefly  in  the  time  of  St.  Louis,  borrowed  from 
the  Oriental  fashion.  The  king  is  represented  in  some  of  the  manuscripts 
thus  seated.  But  this  was  merely  a  temporary  fancy,  for  on  all  formal 
occasions  a  more  formal  seat  was  chosen. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  chimney  furniture  in  brass-work,  and  in  silver 
also,  still  left  to  us  from  the  days  before  comfort  became  so  universal  that 
splendor  suffered  decrease.  The  rechauds,  braziers,  the  sconces,  the  bel- 
lows, and  andirons  are  often  such  as  no  work  of  to-day  equals,  although  a 
portion  of  the  bellows  is  usually  of  carved  wood.  The  shape  of  the  bel- 
lows, by-the-way,  is  something  that  has  not  changed  certainly  in  two  thou- 
sand years.  In  the  time  of  the  Renaissance,  it  being  part  of  the  appanage 
of  the  never-to-be-too-highly-valued  chimney,  the  best  work  was  expended 
upon  it.  It  was  usually  of  walnut  wood,  with  masks,  sirens,  shields,  dol- 
phins, griffins,  and  all  the  carved  ornament  of  the  period  and  style ;  and 
such  a  one  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold  to-day.  On  the  andirons,  too,  the 
artist  and  the  artisan  wrought  with  love,  the  work  as  tender  and  careful 
when  in  iron  as  when  in  silver.  At  Knole,  in  England,  the  variety  of  the 
andirons  is  innumerable.    They  are  of  silver,  bronze,  and  brass.  One 


MINOR  ARTICLES. 


63 


very  quaint  and  unique  design  is  that  of  a  sunflower  hanging  flat  to  the 
light.  It  has  lately  been  revived ;  and  in  one  of  the  new  styles  of  fur- 
nishing its  form  is  often 
seen  ;  and  it  has  even  been 
adopted  into  iron  fences. 
There  are  beautiful  speci- 
mens of  brass  repousse  in 
other  things — the  cover, 
tray,  sconce,  fender,  couvre- 
feu  —  the  design  being 
drawn  and  beaten  out  from 
the  back  and  in  from  the 
front,  and  touched  up  af- 
terward by  the  graver. 
The  sconces  consist  usual- 
ly of  a  reflector  of  the  met- 
al, with  branches  for  can- 
dles beneath.  Some  of 
them  of  the  time  of  Louis 
Treize  are  painted  with  a 
tine  imperceptible  varnish, 
which,  although  it  inter- 
feres with  the  beauty  of 
the  metal  in  its  natural 
state,  and  is  on  the  wrong 
side  of  art,  yet  has  its  ad- 
vantages in  sparing  the 
house -maid's  muscle.  In 
others  of  them  porcelain 
plaques  are  inserted,  showing  finely  by  the  light  of  the  tiny  flames  that 
burn  below  them. 

Besides  all  the  multitude  of  articles  thus  brought  into  use,  there  are 
some  others  introduced  in  the  time  of  Chippendale  and  Sheraton,  Cham- 
bers, and  the  Adam  brothers,  when  the  Chinese  Empire  seemed  to  strike 
people  as  a  new  world.  There  are  mahogany  tea-trays,  sometimes  per- 
fectly plain,  sometimes  as  richly  carved  as  the  Renaissance  bellows ;  there 
are  curious  little  tables  for  turning  out  tea,  with  a  rim  standing  up  around 
them ;  there  are  embroidery  frames  and  easels ;  and  there  are  the  hang- 
ing cabinets.  Before  that  time,  in  the  Jacobean  style,  there  had  been  a 
fashion  of  building  in  little  ornamental  open  shelves  above  the  mantle  on 
either  side,  bracketed  together  in  the  centre  above,  and  on  these  stood  the 


Couvre-fen,  Seventeenth  Century;  Italian  Bellows,  Sixteenth  Cen- 
tury; Italian  Bronze  Andirons,  same  Date;  Gobelins  Tapestry, 
Time  of  Louis  XIV. 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


various  objets  de  vertu  of  the  house.  This,  also,  is  a  fashion  lately  revived, 
even  by  those  who  do  not  care  to  use  the  Jacobean  exclusively,  and,  if  it 
were  to  be  seen  only  here  and  there,  might  be  a  blessing ;  but  bidding 
fair  to  be  seen  at  every  step,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  eye  may  tire  of  it. 
But  the  eye  will  hardly  tire  of  the  hanging  cabinets  of  Chippendale  de- 
sign, with  the  shelves  unenclosed  save  by  a  margin  of  exquisite  open-work, 
sometimes  in  arabesque,  sometimes  in  Chinese  and  Japanese  designs,  and 


Hanging  Cabinet. 

especially  not  of  those  with  an  open  under  and  upper  shelf,  and  the  middle 
one  enclosed  behind  two  tiny  doors,  the  doors  carved,  or  else  with  a  tile 
or  plaque  inserted  for  brightening.  Sometimes,  instead  of  tiles,  plates  of 
bevelled  crystal,  or  even  of  looking-glass,  are  used  ;  sometimes  the  whole  is 
of  ebonized  wood  and  brass.  Objects  too  easily  soiled  are  here  shut  away 
behind  these  doors,  and  others  are  exposed  upon  the  open  shelves — little 
bronzes,  bits  of  old  china,  antiques,  curios  —  to  balance  the  platter  that 


MINOR  ARTICLES. 


05 


has  been  drilled  and  hung  elsewhere  on  its  hooks  in  the  wall,  costly  as 
any  sketch  of  an  old  master.  Among  all  the  revivals,  none  have  ex- 
ceeded the  usefulness  and  beauty  of  this  charming  little  hanging  cabinet. 

There  are  other  minor  articles  that  might  deserve  notice,  but  perhaps 
we  have  spoken  of  such  trifles  at  sufficient  length.  It  should,  however,  be 
remembered  that  as  trifles  make  the  sum  of  life,  so  it  is  trifles  that  make 
much  of  the  general  effect  of  furnishing,  and  we  will  only  add  that  many 
valuable  ones  may  be  found  among  the  light  comfortable  pieces  of  rattan 
piazza  furniture  which  have  proved  a  blessing  to  our  hot  summers. 


Pipe  Shelves. 

5 


66 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


X. 

THE  MATERIAL. 

rpHE  material  of  which  most  of  the  primitive  furniture  was  made,  after 
the  decadence  of  Eoman  splendor,  was  the  prevailing  wood  of  the 
country,  whatever  that  chanced  to  be,  usually  oak,  but  varying  through  a 
number  of  the  common  woods  —  chestnut,  maple,  ash,  pear,  and  cherry. 

Sometimes  the  oak  was  embrowned, 
sometimes  blackened,  sometimes  left 
to  its  natural  tint.  So  left,  except 
for  mellowing  through  seasoning 
and  absorption  of  dust,  it  never 
changed  tint ;  and  those  who  speak 
of  a  piece  of  oak  black  with  age  use 
the  term  incorrectly,  as  oak  is  never 
black  with  age,  but  becomes  black 
only  through  the  application  of  dyes. 
In  the  absence  of  choice  woods,  re- 
course was  had  to  the  metals  for  rare 
work,  and  the  most  sumptuous  fur- 
niture. After  voyages  of  any  length 
were  made,  and  the  products  of  oth- 
er regions  brought  to  market,  new 
woods  from  a  distance  entered  into 
the  manufactures  ;  many,  also,  which 
had  been  known  to  the  ancients, 
were  discovered,  such  as  fragrant 
cedar  and  sandal,  tulip,  bamboo, 
citron  —  the  Romans'  wood  of  luxury — and  ebony,  an  important  article 
of  the  commerce  of  Tyre,  and  of  which  certain  of  the  ancients,  indeed, 
were  used  to  make  statues  of  their  gods. 

The  use  of  ebony,  again,  changed  the  whole  character  of  the  man- 
ufacture of  furniture.  From  the  moment  that  it  re-entered  the  list  of 
commodities  of  luxury  it  required  special  workmen,  equipped,  on  account 
of  its  hardness,  with  peculiar  tools;  and  it  had  to  be  wrought  with  such 


Chair  made  from  the  Ship  of  Sir  Francis  Drake. 


THE  MATERIAL. 


67 


extreme  care,  and  it  commanded  such  great  prices,  that  the  term  used  in 
France  for  its  work,  ebenisterie,  was  presently  transferred  to  all  delicate 
and  costly  cabinet-making.  Its  blackness  allowed  it  to  set  off  any  dress- 
ing which  the  fancy  of  the  artist  supplied,  either  of  hammered  brass,  of 
ivory  inlay,  or  of  painted  panels,  and  the  mutual  contrast  made  the  article, 
of  course,  very  striking.  Sometimes  the  ebony,  which  came  from  the  vast 
forests  of  Madagascar,  Ethiopia,  and  Ceylon,  was  of  a  jet  black ;  sometimes 
of  a  dark  green  streaked  with  dull-red  veins,  not  unlike  the  heliotrope 
.stone  used  for  seals ;  sometimes — and  this  was  as  beautiful  as  any — of  a 
dee])  violet,  just  escaping  black.  Its  tine  and  close  grain,  when  once  well 
wrought,  maintained  the  brilliant  profile  of  its  carving  keen  and  line  for- 
ever. So  very  hard  was  it,  indeed,  that  its  mere  dust,  incorporated  with 
glue,  polished  like  the  wood  itself.  The  costliness  of  the  wood  soon  oc- 
casioned its  imitation ;  and  Jean  de  Verona,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
found  out  how  to  imitate  its  color  so  exactly — by  steeping  more  porous 
wood,  sometimes  oak,  but  preferably  pear,  in  an  infusion  of  nut-galls  and 
alum,  or  sulphate  of  iron,  polishing  it  afterward  with  warm  wax  —  that 
but  for  its  inferior  hardness  it  would  be  impossible  to  detect  the  differ- 
ence. Articles  thus  made  are  sold  to-day  in  Italy  and  Holland  for  man- 
ufactures hundreds  of  years  old. 

Teak,  coming  originally  from  Malabar,  is  a  wood  resembling  ebony, 
although  on  close  inspection  a  ruddy  tint  will  be  observed  in  its  black- 
ness. It  is  hard  and  heavy,  and  in  the  articles  brought  from  the  East  In- 
dies is  usually  seen  carved  in  demonic  shapes,  dragon-like  involutions,  and 
the  outlines  of  the  elephantine  gods,  but  sometimes  in  vast  black  roses 
and  liliaceous  forms. 

There  are  several  other  woods  that  take  a  stain  looking  like  a  choice 
color  in  the  original  grain.  One  of  these  is  maple,  which,  exquisite  in  its 
native  polish,  is  perhaps  even  more  so  when  stained  a  delicate  gray,  with 
all  its  eyes  and  veins  and  cellular  marks  glistening  under  a  fine  varnish. 
It  presents  then  an  appearance  of  smoked  pearl,  lucid  and  full  of  a  veiled 
lustre.  Offset  with  fine  specimens  of  rosewood,  nothing  can  be  pleasanter 
than  its  effect. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  mahogany  was  seen  for 
the  first  time  in  Europe.  If  any  one  too  proudly  displays  enviable  May- 
flower or  Jamestown  furniture  in  mahogany,  the  reader  may  have  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  prize  is  not  genuine.  A  brilliant  red 
wood  used  for  dye,  monopolized  by  the  crown,  and  called  in  Portugal 
queen's-wood,  had  long  been  known,  but  nothing  was  in  use  of  so  rich  a 
tint  as  the  mahogany.  The  first  logs  were  sent  from  the  West  Indies, 
as  an  accidental  portion  of  cargo,  to  one  Dr.  Gibson,  of  London.  When 


68 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


workmen  busied  themselves  with  them,  the  knots  broke  their  tools  and 
discouraged  them,  and  the  logs  lay  untouched  in  a  garden  for  a  long  time, 
acquiring  every  day  a  richer  depth  of  color.  At  length  Dr.  Gibson  called 
a  cabinet-maker  by  the  name  of  Wollaston,  and  told  him  to  take  the  logs 
and  do  something  with  them,  no  matter  what.  Wollaston  at  first  refused  ; 
but  the  doctor,  convinced  of  the  possibilities  of  the  material,  urged  him 
so  strongly  that  finally,  supplying 'himself  with  the  fit  tools,  he  constructed 
a  bureau,  which,  made  of  wood  already  well  seasoned  and  deepened  in 
tone,  so  pleased  the  doctor  that  he  displayed  it  to  a  host  of  admiring 
friends,  among  whom  was  the  Duchess  of  Buckingham;  and  the  latter, 
declaring  she  must  have  the  counterpart,  brought  Wollaston  and  mahog- 
any into  fashion  together.  Although  mahogany  when  new  is  not  attrac- 
tive, it  becomes  more  attractive  with  every  year's  exposure  to  the  subtle 
action  of  the  atmosphere,  acquiring  before  a  great  while  the  warmest  hues 
of  wine.  The  handsomest  pieces  are  those  of  the  roots,  where  the  color- 
ing matter  is  most  strongly  concentrated,  that  brought  from  the  American 
coasts  having  at  first  been  called  amaranth-wood  from  its  superb  strength 
of  tone.  It  is  no  wonder  that  so  charming  a  material  came  into  vogue, 
after  the  Duchess  of  Buckingham's  bureau  had  been  seen.  It  was  some- 
thing to  feed  the  love  of  color  inherent  in  most  of  us,  to  supply  shadow  in 
the  pictorial  effect  of  the  room  even  while  relieving  the  shadow  with  lus- 
tre and  warmth,  the  inner  fire  in  its  dark  depths  shining  like  the  glow 
of  the  carbuncle  or  the  smouldering  embers  on  the  hearth.  Everybody 
wanted  mahogany.  But  mahogany  was  not  only  considered  too  brittle 
for  the  entire  construction  of  solid  articles,  but,  procured  with  difficulty 
and  after  a  long  sea-passage,  it  was  too  expensive ;  and  thus  the  habit  of 
veneering,  with  a  thin  strip  of  it,  supplied  its  more  massive  use. 

Yeneering  had  been  used  by  the  ancients  long  before,  for  we  know 
of  sheets  of  ivory  glued  and  riveted  upon  surfaces  beneath ;  but  veneer- 
ing never  ran  mad  as  it  did  with  mahogany  at  this  time,  and  has  done 
ever  since,  as  many  garrets  full  of  dilapidated  stuff  can  demonstrate. 

Another  very  fine  wood,  a  delightful  substance  when  one  has  a  good 
specimen  of  it,  is  the  rosewood,  its  rose  tints  variegating  its  dark  winy 
tints,  and  making  a  beautiful 'substance  capable  of  being  wrought  artistic- 
ally. The  rosewood  commonly  used  on  our  sofas  and  pianos  is  of  inferior 
veining.  The  choicer  pieces  are  reserved  for  delicate  work,  and  are  fuller 
of  beauty,  as  bare  material,  than  anything  but  the  half-revealed  wealth  of 
mahogany. 

There  are  a  few  other  woods,  such  as  the  black  walnut,  for  instance, 
in  constant  use.  The  black  walnut,  although  offering  a  good  base  to  the 
carver,  affords  no  variety  of  tint,  or  suggestion  of  inner  color,  as  the  ma- 


THE  MATERIAL. 


GO 


pie,  the  rosewood,  and  mahogany  do,  except  in  the  mottled  polished  sur- 
faces of  the  kind  called  French  walnut.  During  the  reign  of  the  Eococo, 
furniture  was  made  of  any  wood  that  came  to  hand,  and  overlaid  with  gild- 
ing and  with  ornament.  Tables  of  alabaster,  consoles  of  mother-of-pearl, 
and  cabinets  of  tortoise-shell  put  honest  but  meaner  substance  out-of-doors, 
although  plain  deal  stuck  together,  and,  covered  with  gold-leaf,  could  al- 


Italian  Oak  Pedestal. 


ways  impose  itself  upon  this  princely  company.  It  is  only  within  the  last 
score  of  years  that  attention  has  been  once  more  directed  to  solidity,  and 
we  have  begun  again  to  furnish  our  bedrooms  in  the  sweet  and  cleanly 
light  oak,  and  have  learned  that  the  once  undreamed-of  yellow  pine,  when 
well  dressed,  is  not  only  one  of  the  cheapest,  but  one  of  the  most  durable 
and  attractive  woods  in  existence,  its  soft  creamy  body  varied  with  stains 
of  deeper  hue  darkening  into  rusty  red. 


70 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XL 

CO  VERINGS. 

THE  first  coverings  worn  by  furniture  were  very  differently  arranged 
from  those  which  are  to-day  sewed  and  nailed  on  over  springs.  Ev- 
erything was  then  tossed  on  the  article,  to  drape  itself  naturally,  and  prob- 
ably the  effect  was  quite  as  luxurious,  although  the  convenience  may  be  a 
matter  of  question.  The  Romans  had  splendid  stuffs,  woven  usually  of 
wool  and  embroidered  with  gold,  thrown  loosely  over  their  couches  and 
canopying  their  tables ;  and  a  certain  bed-covering,  wrought  by  the  needle 
in  Babylon,  was  eventually  purchased  by  Nero  for  a  sum  equivalent  to 
eighty  thousand  dollars — a  piece  of  extravagance  which  few  of  our  mod- 
ern magnates,  with  all  their  expenditure,  will  find  themselves  able  to 
equal. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  our  own  era,  leathers  glued  upon  the  surface, 
then  cut  in  pictured  outline,  and  the  lines  of  the  cutting  filled  with  crude 
color,  were  the  first  covering,  chiefly  confined,  though,  to  armory  and 
chest.  Afterward  finer  materials  draped  seats  loosely  without  attach- 
ment ;  in  time  these  were  stretched  partially  into  the  shape  of  the  article, 
shrouding  its  frame,  and  even  extending  some  way  in  front  for  the  feet ; 
while  as  for  the  various  furs,  they,  of  course,  have  been  used  from  the  day 
of  the  first  savage  to  the  present. 

It  must  have  been  at  an  early  period  that  stuffs  covered  with  embroid- 
ery were  thus  used,  for  we  know  what  the  fingers  could  do  in  the  Bayeux 
tapestry  in  the  eleventh  century,  although  that  was  a  wall  drapery ;  but 
long  before  that  the  destruction  of  Troy  was  wrought  upon  the  golden 
veil  of  Wiglaf,  King  of  Mercia,  the  daughters  of  Charlemagne  had  left 
names  famous  for  weaving  and  spinning  and  embroidery,  and  the  four 
daughters  of  Edward  the  Elder  had  been  no  less  celebrated  for  their 
needle  -  work.  Meanwhile  it  must  have  been  something  deserving  the 
name  of  an  art  already  when  Dunstan  drew  the  designs  for  the  work  with 
which  some  lady  of  the  Church  was  to  beautify  his  own  sacerdotal  robes. 
The  Saxons  were  very  early  known  for  their  fine  wools,  and  we  read  some- 
thing of  the  work  they  did  in  the  old  verse  that  runs : 


COVERINGS. 


71 


"And  in  a  chamber  close  beside, 
Two  hundred  maidens  did  abide, 
In  petticoats  of  stammel  red, 
And  milk-white  kerchers  on  their  heads ; 
Their  smock  sleeves  like  to  winter's  snow 
That  on  the  western  mountains  flow, 
And  each  sleeve  with  a  silken  band 
Was  fairly  tied  at  the  hand  ; 
These  pretty  maids  did  never  lin, 
But  in  that  place  all  day  did  spin." 

Walls  were  hung  and  seats  were  covered  with  the  result  of  their  work 
long  before  damask  came  from  Damascus  or  diaper  had  its  name  from 
Ypres.* 

When  the  next  step  in  luxury  took  place  it  was  toward  cushions  on 
the  chairs  and  benches.  These  cushions  were  at  first  bags  of  wool  or 
feathers;  afterward,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  with  shapes  appropriate  to 
their  particular  use,  thick  and  luxurious  for  the  seat,  round  for  the  feet, 
with  indentations  between  the  corners  for  the  elbows.  Contemporary 
with  these  were  the  counterpanes,  or  conrte-pointes,  lined  and  stuffed  dra- 
peries, quilted,  or  caught  through  from  side  to  side  and  fastened  at  each 
catching  with  a  tag,  as  we  make  mattresses,  or  their  descendants,  the  "  com- 
fortables," to-day.  These  were  replaced  by  cushions  entirely  fitted  to  the 
seat,  sometimes  secured  by  straps ;  and  after  they  became  the  fashion, 
besides  the  softer  stuffs,  various  ornamental  leathers,  already  in  use,  were 
adapted  to  the  purpose.  Of  these  the  Cordovan  was  the  most  in  de- 
mand, embossed  and  flowered  in  colors  and  in  gold,  and  styled  gauffered 
leather,  as  all  leathers  are  styled  when  thus  dressed ;  and  Flanders  and 
Eussia  furnished  a  fine  article  at  a  later  day.  There  were,  also,  daintier 
coverings  more  fit  to  meet  the  touch  of  the  fine  garments  that  were  in 
wear. 

As  seats  became  lighter  and  more  movable,  the  covering  was  for  the 
first  time  during  the  sixteenth  century  fastened  on  securely  with  nails,  the 
stuffing  and  buttoning  of  the  courte-pointe  in  its  abbreviated  shape  being 
transferred  to  it.  Springs,  meanwhile,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  used  in 
chairs  and  sofas  till  about  the  time  of  Louis  Quatorze. 

Silks,  made  in  the  Greek  Empire,  had  come  in  with  the  sixth  century, 
at  first  too  precious  for  any  but  ecclesiastical  or  personal  use.  Afterward 
there  was  velvet  and  samite,  which  latter  some  archaeologists  presume  to 
be  the  old  French  for  velvet  itself ;  and  others  insist  that  it  was  silk  spun 
with  gold — a  precious  material,  to  judge  from  the  immemorial  saying  con- 


*  Another  derivation  is  from  the  old  French  diaspre,  mottled  jasper. 


72 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


cerning  a  happy  life,  "  Des  jours  files  cVor  et  de  soie" — days  spun  of  silk 
and  gold. 

Gold-thread  appeared  in  most  of  these  earlier  stuffs ;  their  first  epoch 
is  entirely  of  gold  and  silver  thread.  Then  came  figured  stuffs,  sown 
with  griffins,  unicorns,  wheels,  Byzantine  peacocks,  tigers,  swallows,  apples 
of  gold,  branches  of  palm,  lions,  men,  horses,  and  what  not.  Utrecht  vel- 
vets followed  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  brought  after  them  the  train  of 
woollen  plushes  and  stamped  felts ;  and  at  last  silks  with  velvet  flowers 
were  made  in  Venice  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  bars,  bands,  and  me- 
dallions were  the  choice.  These  were  all  daring  in  style  and  color :  a  gold 
griffin  upon  a  brick-red  ground,  dull  green  on  black  figured  with  heads  of 
fantastic  birds  in  gold-thread,  or  blue  scattered  over  with  great  branches 
of  lilies  in  gold.    But  how  very  illuminating  they  must  have  been  ! 

The  Aubusson  and  Gobelin  tapestries,  also,  were  put  to  use  in  cov- 
ering chairs  and  couches  with  their  wonderful  work  ;  China  sent  satins 
and  embroidery  that  for  design,  for  flatness,  for  close  heavy  work,  is 
not  to  be  equalled  at  the  present  day  hy  the  most  skilled  of  the  French 
needle-women ;  while  at  last,  during  the  Renaissance  period,  some  of  the 
designs  of  the  figured  silks  grew  exceedingly  gentle  and  lovely,  purified 
from  the  rude  fantasticisms  of  early  days.  Cretonne,  made  at  first  of 
hemp,  had  meanwhile  come  in  during  the  tenth  century  for  such  of  us 
as  could  not  afford  these  stiff  golden  and  silken  stuffs,  giving  the  same 
colors  and  designs,  wanting  nothing  but  the  lustre,  and  not  always  that ; 
and  since  then  reps  have  simulated  as  best  they  could  the  Aubusson  and 
other  tapestries.  For  the  rest,  hair-cloth  we  have  always  with  us — a  fab- 
ric in  daily  increasing  contempt,  which  has  no  virtue  that  cannot  better 
be  supplied  by  something  else — its  coolness  by  rattan,  its  shadow  by  adap- 
tation ;  for  if  one  wishes  a  dark  effect  in  any  portion  of  a  room,  to  set  a 
jet-black  article  there  is  as  bad  a  way  of  working  as  for  a  painter,  wish- 
ing to  produce  an  effect  of  blackness,  to  daub  in  the  crude  black.  Nev- 
ertheless, those  who  are  upholstering  their  gilt  sofas  in  black  satin  can- 
not have  a  word  to  say  concerning  the  black  lustres  of  hair -cloth.  It  is 
not  given  to  many  of  us  to  have  chairs  like  Lady  Blessington's,  of  moth- 
er-of-pearl upholstered  in  white  velvet,  on  which  the  leading  artists  of 
the  day  have  left  their  sign -manual  in  lovely  landscapes  and  medallion 
portraits;  but  we  need  not  go  into  mourning  about  it,  and  lumber  our 
rooms  with  hearse -like  monuments  in  dead  black.  There  are  exquisite 
goods  to  be  had  in  the  markets  now,  woollens  of  the  purest  tints  that 
leave  little  to  desire,  cottons  of  smooth  finish  and  pleasant  pattern,  cheap 
enough  for  the  buyer  to  afford  to  replace  them ;  and  with  these  we  can 
make  our  shabbiest  articles  of  furniture  so  attractive  —  pinning  the  ma- 


COVERINGS. 


terial  over  the  shape  of  the  article  till  it  fits,  then  cutting  it,  and  bind- 
ing the  seams  while  still  pinned  in  place  —  that,  if  it  is  not  the  furniture 
of  palaces,  we  shall  never  feel  it,  so  far  as  simple  beauty  goes.  And  we 
doubt  not  that  any  of  those  old  mediaeval  ladies,  who  set  such  store  on 
their  few  hand -printed  buckrams  from  Boukhara  (a  bit  of  ugly  brown 
and  red  and  yellow  cotton  buckram  was  preserved  as  a  treasure  by  a  cer- 
tain Tyrolean  countess  who  married  an  Elector  of  Brandenburg),  would 
have  given,  had  they  dared,  their  best  gold  -  threaded  lions  and  leopards 
and  heraldic  beasts  and  inscriptions  for  any  of  the  exquisite  and  dainty 
chintzes  with  which  we  of  the  present  add  a  new  bloom  to  summer. 


74 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XII. 

THE  ORNAMENT. 

NO  sooner  was  furniture  an  established  fact  than  ornament  was  applied 
to  it.  At  first  of  the  simplest  description,  it  consisted  of  little  but 
the  hinges  and  locks,  which,  by-and-by,  spread  into  beautiful  proportions, 
and  overlaid  the  surfaces  with  a  glittering  sort  of  embroidery.  After 
that,  panels  were  made,  arches  were  formed  at  their  top,  a  slice  was  pared 
off  at  the  cornei-,  making  an  initial  species  of  chamfering  or  channelling, 
leathers  were  pasted  over  smooth  surfaces,  and  were  either  painted,  or,  as 
we  have  already  said,  incised  and  the  incision  painted.  The  painting  of 
the  incision  grew  into  a  rich  and  effective  decoration,  and  the  slight  modi- 
fication of  inessential  shape  grew  into  mouldings ;  into  an  ornament  of 
simple  lines  made  by  rude  tools;  finally  into  carvings.  After  the  four- 
teenth century  there  were  few  flat  surfaces,  and  from  that  date  ornament 
ran  riot,  and  ended  by  paying  no  more  attention  to  rule  than  we  suppose 
a  wild-blackberry  vine  in  August  pays  to  geometrical  progression. 

Yet  there  are  certain  rules  outside  of  which  ornament  has  no  right  to 
its  being,  and  which  have  always  been  recognized  by  those  of  whose  work 
the  world  does  not  weary.  Thus,  although  ornament  is  always  an  acces- 
sory, since  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  exist  without  its  base,  yet  it  is  a 
constructive  accessory,  if  one  may  so  say ;  that  is,  it  is  never  to  be  intro- 
duced for  its  own  sake,  but  as  a  beautifying  of  the  constructive  design. 
The  reason  for  its  existence  should  be  apparent  upon  its  face,  and  every 
detail  of  it  kept  subordinate  to  the  general  effect. 

It  is  considered  by  able  critics  that  ornament  is  something  to  please  the 
eye  and  the  emotions  thus  affected,  and  not  to  arouse  the  intellect  or  the 
moral  sense;  and,  in  this  view,  beauty,  the  simple  pleasure  of  line  and  tint, 
absolute  fitness,  takes  rank  before  symbolism  or  the  suggestion  of  hidden 
meanings ;  and  it  is  claimed  that  the  highest  type  of  ornament,  either  for 
furniture  or  for  any  other  purpose,  is  the  purely  ideal,  and  of  this  the  best 
examples  are  to  be  found  in  the  Grecian,  the  Saracenic,  and  the  Early 
English.  The  Grecian,  it  is  true,  used  symbolic  ornaments,  but  they  were 
only  those  borrowed  from  the  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  and  elsewhere,  and 
repeated  without  the  least  reference  to  their  hidden  meaning,  the  fret  of 


Frescoes  executed  under  Raphael's  Direction. 


THE  ORNAMENT. 


the  labyrinth  by  no  means  suggesting  here,  as  it  did  in  the  Egyptian,  the 
three  thousand  chambers  under  Lake  Moeris,  and  the  egg  and  arrow  of  the 
echinus  standing  for  mere  effect  of  light  and  shadow,  and  for  no  type  of 
death  and  the  resurrection. 

Next  to  this  ideal  in  ornament  comes  that  which  represents  an  idea 
suggested  by  some  object  in  nature,  but  not  imitating  that  object,  in  which 
much  India  and  Japanese  work  may  be  found ;  not,  however,  all  Indian 
or  Japanese.  In  certain  provinces  of  India  it  beautifies  the  architecture ; 
it  is  in  the  carving  of  the  best  of  the  articles  in  Bombay  black-wood,  and 
in  fine  India  shawls.  It  is  in  perfection  in  the  Japanese  copper  lacquer- 
work,  centuries  old,  but  fresh  and  firm  as  if  just  out  of  the  maker's  hand. 
After  this  come  conventionalized  forms  such  as  the  Middle  Ages  delighted 
in  ;  and,  lastly,  the  merely  imitative. 

The  handling  of  the  curve  betrays  the  spirit  of  all  decoration.  It  is 
not  only  the  line  of  beauty,  it  is  the  line  of  life ;  the  curve  of  the  Pastoral 
Crook  being  the  line,  as  it  has  been  said,  which  the  palms  obey,  springing 
at  that  point  of  the  globe  where  the  vital  impulse  is  strongest ;  the  line 
in  which  the  ferns,  the  last  representatives  of  the  period  when  the  earth 
teemed  with  lavish  waste  of  force,  uncurl  to-day,  and  in  which  we  see  the 
pushing,  swift-growing  grape-vine  reaching  for  its  support ;  the  line  ex- 
pressing the  curve  at  the  point  of  infinite  strength.  It  is  this  line  which 
is  followed  throughout  all  the  curves  of  the  Early  English  decoration.  If 
the  reader  compares  such  lines  as  this  and  its  derivatives  with  the  lines  of 
the  Louis  Quatorze  and  Louis  Quinze  styles,  it  will  be  evident  how  widely 
the  latter  differ  from  the  lines  of  pure  beauty. 

All  ornament  lies  within  the  province,  technically,  either  of  the 
"round"  or  of  the  ''flat."  To  the  round  belong  carving  and  all  forms  of 
relief ;  to  the  flat,  the  damascene,  the  diaper,  and  much  of  the  geometrical 
design  which  is  in  reality  an  elaboration  of  the  abstract  principle  of  the 
beauty  involved  in  the  representation  of  the  natural  object,  together  with 
all  the  varying  lights  and  shades  of  color,  silver,  and  gold.  In  the  flat  also 
belongs  a  portion  of  the  constructive  order  of  decoration,  together  with  in- 
lay, such  as  marquetry,  tarsia,  precious  mosaic,  buhl,  niello,  and  the  ordinary 
veneerings.  Of  these,  mosaic  and  veneering  are  of  immemorial  usage,  al- 
though the  antique  veneering  was  of  rich  material  applied  in  sesthetic  design. 

The  introduction  of  costly  woods,  and  the  love  of  display  rather  than 
of  solidity,  brought  the  fashion  of  veneer  into  general  use  again.  But 
while  with  the  ancients  it  had  been  used  with  fine  material  as  a  further 
adornment  to  substance  already  fine,  with  the  moderns  it  was  resorted  to 
as  a  falsehood  to  represent  the  structure  of  the  article  in  question,  for 
everybody  desired  the  appearance  of  luxury  without  possessing  the  means 


7^ 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


to  purchase  luxury;  and  so  the  furniture-makers,  essaying  to  please  their 
patrons,  saddled  the  world  with  articles  that,  splendid  enough  for  a  palace, 
had  not  the  coherence  of  a  house  of  cards.  Veneering  became  a  modern 
fashion  as  soon  as  it  was  well  known  again.  Catherine  de'  Medici  had  the 
walls  of  whole  rooms  veneered ;  under  the  Louises,  veneering  witli  white 
and  rose-colored  marbles  was  practised,  and  in  rosewood  also.  What  was 
good  enough  for  princes  was  good  enough  for  subjects,  and  from  the  sev- 
enteenth century  to  the  present  it  has  been  more  or  less  in  vogue.  Even 
veneering,  though,  has  its  limitations,  as  every  wood  will  not  receive  it; 
only  the  lighter  and  more  porous  woods,  into  which  the  glue  (which  is 
best  when  strengthened  with  brandy)  can  penetrate,  lending  themselves 
to  the  deception  and  flaunting  in  the  false  pretence. 

Marquetry  has  a  better  right  to  be  considered  under  the  head  of  or- 
nament, for  marquetry  cannot  be  applied  except  with  ornamental  design 
both  in  outline  and  color,  since  mere  light  and  shade,  in  a  certain  sense, 
stand  for  color.  Although  it  had  been  used  by  the  Venetians,  who  had 
received  it  from  the  Orient,  it  was  brought  into  more  active  use  by  the 
Germans  and  the  Dutch  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the 
German  work  being  preferable,  and  inspired  by  certain  old  Gothic  exam- 
ples— rare,  indeed,  since  marquetry  was  not  a  very  favorite  Gothic  orna- 
ment. To-day  the  Dutch  counterfeit  those  early  marquetries,  and  sell 
them  at  high  prices  to  those  nnable  to  detect  the  forgery.  The  early 
specimens  represent  flowers  (the  Dutch  ones  tulips),  birds,  and  landscapes. 
Marquetry  is  usually  done  with  wood,  sometimes  in  geometrical  traceries, 
sometimes  in  branches  of  foliage.  The  process  is  quite  elaborate,  the  pat- 
tern being  laid  on  cloth  before  it  is  applied  on  the  surface  that  has  been 
hollowed  for  it,  where  it  is  additionally  secured  by  a  series  of  tirm  but 
gentle  taps.  Sometimes  the  woods  are  in  native  colors,  but  more  fre- 
quently they  are  stained,  the  holly  or  white-wood  for  the  lighter  tints,  the 
oak  and  plane-tree  woods  for  the  deeper  ones,  acetate  of  copper  producing 
green,  indigo  blue,  and  logwood,  nitrate  of  copper,  saffron,  and  other  dyes 
being  used.  Tarsia  is  a  marquetry  in  wood,  chiefly  pine  and  cypress,  fig- 
ures and  draperies  being  effectively  reproduced  in  this  way  by  represent- 
ing the  angles  and  folds  with  wood  laid  according  to  the  varying  grain, 
some  more  prominent  points  afterward  touched  up  with  the  hot  iron. 
There  is  also  a  marquetry  in  straw,  and  the  brilliant  dyes  which  the 
straw  takes,  together  with  the  lustrous  substance  itself,  make  the  work 
quite  attractive ;  but  it  is  too  brittle  and  perishable  to  deserve  much  notice. 
No  marquetry  exceeds  for  curiosity  that  which  is  occasionally  brought 
now  from  India,  known  as  the  mosaic  of  Bombay,  and  made  of  microscopic 
cubes  of  wood  that  produce  a  fine  effect. 


THE  ORNAMENT. 


79 


Of  this  class  of  ornament  the  most  magnificent,  of  course,  is  the  mosaic 
in  stone.  Sometimes  this  is  executed  even  in  jewels.  Florence  has  for 
hundreds  of  years  been  famous  for  its  pletra  dura,  or  pietra  commessa, 
"which,"  says  a  traveller,  "is  a  marble  ground  inlaid  with  several  sorts 

of  marbles  and  stones  of  various  colors   In  one  is  represented  the 

town  of  Leghorn."  A  table  made  of  this  work  is  described  as  a  structure 
of  ebony,  "divided  into  compartments  by  columns  of  heliotrope,  Oriental 
jasper,  and  lapis  lazuli,  which  have  the  bases  and  capitals  of  chased  silver. 
The  work  is  furthermore  enriched  with  jewels,  beautiful  ornaments  of  sil- 
ver, and  exquisite  little  figures,  interspersed  with  miniatures  and  terminal 
figures  of  silver  and  gold,  in  full  relief,  united  in  pairs.  There  are,  be- 
sides, other  compartments  formed  of  jasper,  agates,  heliotropes,  sardonyxes, 
carnelians,  and  other  precious  stones." 

Another  choice  method  of  ornamentation  is  niello -work.  This  is 
wrought  upon  an  inlay  of  silver  or  corresponding  material,  the  design,  like 
a  pen-and-ink  sketch,  being  cut  in.  The  niello  is  itself  a  powder  formed 
of  copper,  sulphur,  lead,  and  borax,  melted  together  and  pulverized. 
Spreading  it  on  the  design,  a  flame  is  blown  over  it  by  the  blow -pipe, 
which  fuses  it,  the  outer  particles  clinging  to  the  rough  sides  of  the  cut- 
ting; it  is  then  finished  by  rubbing  the  surface  with  pumice  and  after- 
ward polishing  by  hand.  It  is  to  niello -work  that  we  are  said  to  owe 
our  possession  of  pictures  printed  from  engraved  plates,  as  it  was  in  ob- 
taining proofs  of  the  design  (by  first  filling  the  lines,  before  the  niello 
itself  was  spread  there,  wTith  black  matter^  over  which  a  sheet  of  damp 
paper  was  laid  and  a  roller  passed,  thus  procuring  an  impression)  that  its 
further  use  was  suggested  to  Finiguerra. 

The  gayest  of  all  ornament  that  furniture  has  ever  known,  and  at  the 
same  time  one  that  degenerated  from  harmless  beauty  into  the  most  mere- 
tricious, in  its  universal  application  and  overloading,  is  boule-work.  This 
was  the  invention  of  a  French  wood-carver  of  the  name  of  Boule,  who, liv- 
ing to  the  age  of  ninety,  was  able  to  carry  his  work  under  his  own  eye  to 
its  highest  point  of  perfection.  It  consisted  strictly  of  an  inlay  of  brass 
or  of  unburnished  gold  in  tortoise-shell,  and  afterward  was  extended  to 
admit  incrustation  and  mosaic  of  copper,  ivory,  mother-of-pearl,  and  col- 
ored woods,  together  with  more  costly  substance  of  silver,  lapis  lazuli, 
jasper,  precious  stones,  and  even  of  enamel,  upon  ebony  or  any  dark 
background.  The  designs  were  complicated,  intended  to  be  graceful 
and  harmonious,  and,  besides  the  arabesques,  represented  animals,  flowers, 
fruits,  landscapes,  battle  pieces,  and  hunting  parties.  This  decoration  be- 
came immensely  popular.  The  king,  Louis  Quatorze,  was  delighted  with 
it,  and  gave  the  inventor  apartments  in  the  Louvre,  made  him  engraver 


80 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


of  the  royal  seals,  and  in  his  brevet  styled  him  architect,  painter,  sculptor 
in  mosaic,  artist  in  furniture,  engraver,  master  of  inlay,  and  inventor  of 
ciphers. 

But  even  this  ornament  gave  way  during  the  reign  of  Louis  Quinze  to 
the  Rococo  mania,  when  decorated  plaster  and  gilt  wood  —  torturing  the 
rocks,  shells,  and  roses  out  of  all  semblance  to  anything  either  in  nature 
or  in  art,  its  very  name  a  corruption  of  rocailles  and  coquilles,  rocks  and 
shells — usurped  the  public  fancy,  abashed  noble  decoration,  debased  taste, 
and  wrought  havoc  with  design. 

Rich  carving  in  the  solid,  however,  always  remains  a  fit  manner  of 
decoration  when  its  model  is  satisfactory.  It  takes  the  light  and  shade 
more  handsomely  than  any  gilding  or  burnishing.  If  it  is  done  in  accord- 
ance with  correct  principle,  palaces  can  ask  nothing  more  beautiful  for  the 
ornament  of  their  furniture,  even  if  they  demand  anything  more  showy, 
and  if  it  is  expensive,  it  is  everlasting.  At  present  a  prevailing  ornament, 
where  carving  cannot  be  afforded,  is  flat,  smooth  mouldings  enclosing 
plaques  of  porcelain. 

Meanwhile,  to  remember  the  character  of  the  object  to  be  ornamented 
is  the  first  consideration — its  origin,  its  growth,  its  purpose.  When  we 
turn  a  chair  into  a  shell  or  a  shell  into  a  chair,  and  furnish  a  room,  as  it 
were,  with  trophies  from  the  submarine  residence  of  some  aquatic  tribe, 
we  forget  the  history  of  the  chair,  prevent  its  development  in  its  proper 
traits,  and  turn  beauty  into  monstrosity.  Misapplied  ornament  is  worse 
than  poverty,  for  it  is  also  vulgarity. 

For  those  who  can  afford  none  of  these  ornaments  there  remain  cer- 
tain woods  always  charming  in  their  self-colors,  which,  when  well  made 
up,  remind  one  that  beauty  unadorned  is  adorned  the  most ;  since  the  sim- 
plest article  when  perfectly  constructed  is  already  ornamented  in  a  way, 
while  no  ornament  at  all  is  preferable  to  any  exuberance  and  wealth  of 
that  into  which  the  conscience  of  art  has  not  entered. 


THE  GOTHIC  STYLE. 


81 


XIII. 

THE  GOTHIC  STYLE. 

n^HE  Gothic  was  the  term  bestowed  in  derision  by  the  classicists  upon 
J-  mediaeval  art.  Under  the  fascination  of  the  Kenaissance,  the  taste  for 
this  style  declined ;  bnt  of  late  years  it  lias  been  upon  the  increase  till  the 


Mediaeval  Gothic  Hall. 


style  has  become  a  matter  of  universal  pride  and  research.  The  Gothic, 
if  not  indigenous  to  England,  took  such  root  there  that  it  became  national ; 
and  such  study  has  it  received  that  its  course  is  very  plainly  to  be  traced. 
Of  course,  in  a  land  where  mediaeval  castles  crown  every  hill,  mediaeval 
furniture  has  some  pre-eminent  rights ;  but  in  this  country  it  is  exotic. 
If  we  did  not  build  mediaeval  battlemented  buildings  when  we  had  the 
French  and  Indians  to  fight,  we  can  hardly  build  them  now.  JSeverthe- 

6 


82 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


less,  there  are  conditions  with  us  that  give  various  forms  of  the  Gothic  a 
right  of  place :  the  greater  part  of  oar  country  is  so  sparsely  settled,  and 
still  so  well  wooded,  that  the  spire  is  as  much  a  landmark  here  as  it  was 


Modern  Gothic  Window  and  Curtain. 

in  the  regions  of  its  birth  and  early  adoption ;  and  our  climate  derives  a 
good  claim  to  the  use  of  the  Gothic  from  its  character  of  shedding  heavy 
snows  and  rains,  and  of  calling  down,  as  it  were,  by  its  many  spires  and 
pinnacles,  all  the  sunshine  there  may  be ;  for  the  rest,  religion  being  free 
to  all,  if  it  is  found  that  the  Gothic  is  the  best  suited  to  any  religious 
needs  and  ceremonies,  the  privilege  of  choice  is  as  much  ours  as  it  ever 
was  any  blue-blooded  Norman's.  Having  buildings  in  the  Gothic,  of 
course  the  furniture  follows. 

But  we  can  urge  a  right  to  such  furnishing  as  Gothic  buildings  should 
hold,  through  our  ancestry  and  our  love  of  old  association,  although  we 
cannot  hope  to  see  that  furnishing  in  perfection  remote  from  wealth.  It 
is  true  that  it  lends  itself  very  kindly  to  the  cheapest  wood,  not  only  be- 
cause it  replaced  the  old  Saxon,  which  employed  wood  altogether,  but  be- 
cause, when  first  appropriated  from  the  churches  for  household  purposes, 
with  the  slow  adoption  of  civilizing  forms  of  life — as  in  credence,  armory, 
bench — it  was  of  course  used  upon  portable  material.    But  the  wood  is  to 


THE  GOTHIC  STYLE. 


83 


be  carved  and  ornamented  to  the  last  degree,  and  the  stingy  and  shabby 
has  nothing  in  common  with  Gothic ;  a  plank  which  helps  uphold  another 
plank  may  be  sawed  with  a  rough  trefoil,  to  be  sure ;  but  that  is  no  more 
Gothic  than  crude  carpentry  is  cabinet-making — unless  one  can  say  that 
the  alphabet  is  poetry. 

If  not  the  most  beautiful,  the  Gothic  is  certainly  the  most  picturesque 
of  all  the  styles  of  furnishing;  and  its  religious  character,  its  symbolism, in 
which  every  moulding,  every  dentellation,  has  its  religious  meaning,  does 
not  unfit  it  for  the  uses  and  companionship  of  home.  It  is  an  arbitrary 
and  exacting  style,  too,  requiring  to  be  complete,  without  a  single  archse- 
ological  detail  at  fault ;  and  if  undertaken  by  those  who  have  not  made 


Modem  Gothic  Sideboard. 


it  a  severe  study,  it  is  apt  to  be  full  of  error.  An  anachronism  in  itself 
when  transplanted  to  another  era,  the  unlearned  are  liable  to  make  its 
every  item  an  anachronism  too ;  they  will  give  us  a  carving  of  tropical 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


plants  upon  this  Northern  stem,  whose  essential  characteristic  is  that  it 
adopted  into  its  decoration  only  the  vegetation  of  its  neighborhood ;  they 
will  give  ns  a  modern  tufted  carpet  with  a  Gothic  wainscot,  a  buhl  table 
underneath  a  Gothic  window.  This  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  only  style 
that  admits  no  stranger  to  its  hospitality.  With  a  Louis  Treize  chair  you 
may  have  a  Cinque-cento  cabinet ;  with  a  Quatorze  console  you  may  have 
a  Japanese  armory ;  but  in  the  Gothic  the  old  rule  holds — if  you  are  not 
with  me,  you  are  against  me.  It  makes  but  a  single  doubting  exception 
in  admitting  the  Turkish  lounge  for  those  whose  bones  demand  some- 
thing less  severe  than  Gothic  pur  sang — the  Turkish  showing  no  wood 
at  all,  and  with  its  cushions  and  its  general  derivation  being  sufficiently 
Byzantine  still  to  claim  some  affiliation  of  race,  and  have  a  right  in  a 
cousin's  house.  Cushions,  and  stuffed  and  tufted  seats,  indeed,  are  as 
much  a  part  of  the  Gothic  as  chairs  with  tall  backs  finished  in  ogival 
arches,  or  crests  and  quatref  oils :  they  represent  in  this  generation  the  old 
counterpane,  which  was  a  lined  and  quilted  covering  for  seats  as  well  as 

beds.  Draperies,  also,  play  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  style,  screening 
recesses  and  dividing  rooms,  as  in  old 
mediaeval  usage,  where  they  original- 
ly made  all  the  divisions  of  the  one 
great  hall.  These  draperies  should 
always  be  of  thick  and  rather  rich 
material.  The  days  that  brought 
them  into  use  needed  them  both 
thick  and  heavy ;  and  where  they 
used  to  be  of  gauffered  leather,  they 
were  afterward  of  silk  and  wool 
wrought  tapestry,  or,  as  Alienor  de 
Poictiers  says,  "  Le  velours  est  le  plus 
honorable  qui  le  peut  recouvrir"  (of 
all  coverings,  velvet  is  the  most  hon- 
orable). For  those  who  cannot  afford 
the  richer  varieties,  come  soft  wool- 
lens covered  with  work  like  that  of 
the  ordinary  broche*  shawls,  in  fine 
quaint  figures,  or  in  plain  material 
crossed  off  at  long  intervals  with 
broad  bands  of  a  contrasting  color, 
that  being  one  of  the  distinctive  signs  of  the  later  years  of  the  epoch ; 
while  the  earlier  years  bear  geometric  forms,  griffins,  unicorns,  basilisks, 


THE  GOTHIC  STYLE. 


85 


and  heraldic  lions  framed  in  circles,  and  others  show  Gothic  charac- 
ters alternating  with  checks.  The  bands,  from  their  constant  Saracenic 
association,  are  always  correct,  and  can  in  themselves  contain  these  ear- 


Modern  Gothic  Piano. 

lier  emblems.  The  colors  should  seldom  be  vivid,  although  they  may 
be  rich,  for  undue  brilliancy  would  give  too  new  an  appearance  for  the 
dingy  worsteds  and  faded  silks  of  the  old  tapestries  and  cloths ;  the  brick 
reds,  dull  peacock  blues,  and  black  and  golds,  together  with  the  delicate, 
if  not  dingy,  ecclesiastical  tints,  are  best.  These  draperies  at  doors  and 
windows  are  often  hung  under  square  lambrequins,  but  they  are  never 
overtopped  with  cumbersome  loops  and  festoons ;  the  dorsels  of  high- 
backed  seats  hang  from  little  hooks  or  buttons,  but  the  curtains  and  larger 
pieces  fall  freely  by  means  of  rings  running  on  rods.  Above  the  drajDery 
a  frieze  is  frequently  seen,  and  this,  when  not  stencilled  directly  upon  the 
wall,  can  be  painted  on  canvas  strips  and  fastened  in  place  on  slight  frames, 
allowing  one  to  cleanse  them,  or  to  take  them  down  and  roll  them  away 
if  leaving  the  house  for  a  season. 

The  shape  of  Gothic  furniture  is  not  always  necessarily  pointed  and 
arched,  crocketed  and  trefoiled,  although  its  ornament  partakes  of  such 
character.  There  are  many  articles  in  the  Gothic,  especially  in  the  mod- 
ern reproduction  of  it,  with  little  ornament  and  little  shaping  beyond 
those  of  their  angular  construction,  but  whose  outlines,  as  the  French 
say,  frankly  accuse  their  destination.  Others  are  full  of  a  rich  elabora- 
tion of  detail,  but  with  solidity  of  structure  and  well-balanced  shadow, 


S6 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


and  with  ornaments  of  porcelain,  and  hinges  and  scroll-work  of  hammered 
iron  or  of  brass.  The  chairs  are  heavy,  the  sideboards  dark  and  massive; 
little  curtains,  that  may  be  as  gorgeous  as  one  pleases,  provided  their  de- 
sign is  in  character,  shield  the  recesses  of  certain  of  the  cabinets ;  the 
chandeliers  are  crowns  of  light ;  while  the  tables  have  strong  supports, 
particularly  the  dining -tables,  in  remembrance  of  the  huge  dishes  they 
carried  in  former  days,  when,  as  it  has  been  said,  life  was  wTar ;  and  after 
war,  jousting;  and  after  jousting,  orgy.  The  large  mirror  does  not,  in 
strictness,  belong  to  the  Gothic,  which  knew  only  small  glasses  and  gir- 


Drawing-room  iu  Modem  Gothic. 


andoles;  yet  it  is  not  forbidden  to  its  modern  form,  since  it  is  as  desira- 
ble to  add  in  the  right  spirit  as  to  imitate,  and  too  insistent  imitation  may 
make  one  absurd  as  Mr.  Browning's  "Middle -Age  Manners  Adapter," 
from  whom  the  flight  of  the  duchess  was  inevitable. 

As,  in  adapting  the  Gothic  to  our  uses  to-day,  we  do  not  intend  to 
forego  the  pleasures  that  have  come  to  us  since  its  earlier  era,  a  music- 
room  in  that  style  may  be  peculiarly  rich  and  effective.  The  harp  has 
universal  rights,  and  the  organ  was  not  entirely  unknown  even  in  the 
Dark  Ages.  We  read  of  an  organ  constructed  by  a  Venetian  for  Louis 
the  Debonair  in  the  ninth  century,  and  there  were,  doubtless,  others  of 


THE  GOTHIC  STYLE. 


earlier  date ;  and  although  spinet  and  clavichord  and  piano  can  hardly 
claim  such  long  descent,  yet  the  existence  of  the  organ  makes  the  piano 
less  of  an  anachronism  than  it  would  seem.  Meanwhile  the  beautiful 
shapes  of  the  Gothic,  all  its  significations,  emblems,  and  spiritual  conso- 
nances, make  it  particularly  appropriate.  This  style  is  also  very  well 
suited  to  the  library,  because  of  its  ecclesiastical  origin,  and  because  of 
the  preservation  of  books  and  learning  by  the  priests  and  monks ;  while  it 
lends  a  necessary  air  of  cloistered  quiet  there.  But  in  its  heavy  and  solid 
forms  it  is,  best  of  all,  suited  to  the  dining-room,  and  it  has  many  articles 
of  its  mediaeval  period  that  answer  almost  as  well  to  the  needs  of  the 
present  there  as  of  the  past ;  its  sumptuous  appearance,  too,  supplies  ex- 
actly what  the  dining-room  requires.  Bat  in  the  drawing-room,  the 
Gothic  is  to  be  handled  with  great  care,  constructed  of  the  choicest  woods, 
and  illuminated  with  much  ornament  of  delicate  brass,  porcelain,  bits  of 
mirror,  sconces,  cushions,  and  soft  draperies  of  the  paler  tints,  since  it 
needs  all  the  lightening  it  can  have,  in-order  to  overcome  its  dark  and 
rather  sombre  character  in  a  place  devoted  to  lightsome  gayety.  For  the 
rest,  tessellated  floors  with  rugs,  raftered  roofs,  deep  caissons  in  ceilings 
and  windows,  stained  glass,  coats  of  arms,  antique  mottoes,  armor  and 
weapons  and  foils,  and  any  spoils  of  the  chase,  are  the  fit  things  to  greet 
the  eye  of  any  entering  a  house  built  and  furnished  in  the  Gothic. 


88 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XIV. 


THE  RENAISSANCE. 


fT^HAT  it  has  taken  the  historic  movements  of 
J-  trivial  things  that  constitute  our  household 
our  furniture  is  trivial,  and  not  as  vital  and  nec- 
essary as  temples  and  towers  themselves — seems, 
at  first  sight,  a  monstrous  declaration.  But  it 
is  nevertheless  true  that  the  convulsions  of  em- 
pires and  the  epochs  that  have  shaped  the  fate 
of  races  have  also  shaped  the  articles  of  our 
daily  use;  and  the  events  that  have  brought 
about  our  styles  of  architecture  have  unfail- 
ingly reacted  on  our  furniture  and  produced 
new  styles  there  too. 

Before  the  barbarians  had  destroyed  the  pos- 
sibility of  further  household  art,  the  conversion 
of  Constantine  to  Christianity  had  proved  a 
death-blow  to  so-called  profane  art.  Obedi- 
ently to  the  imperial  edicts  issued  after  several 
milder  ones  had  proved  of  no  avail,  the  most 
beautiful  works  of  antiquity  were  broken  to 
fragments ;  whole  cities  waited  on  the  word ; 
temples  were  razed,  gods  overthrown,  the  lovely 
shapes  of  nymph  and  faun  crumbled  to  dust  in 
the  furnaces ;  and  such  was  the  ruin  that  when 
the  order  to  destroy  these  marvels  of  genius 
and  workmanship  was  issued  for  the  fourth 
time,  by  Honorius,  the  words  were  added,  "if 
there  be  any." 

But  from  the  ashes  of  an  old  art  a  new 
one  always  springs.  Ancient  temples  being  no 
more,  others  were  needed ;  and  the  Christians 
of  the  Eastern  Empire,  remembering  with  af- 
fection the  circular  buildings,  used  for  sepul- 


the  world  to  produce  the 
furniture — allowing  that 


Cinque-cento  Panel. 


THE  RENAISSANCE. 


89 


chral  purposes,  of  their  earliest  worship  at  Rome,  built  churches  in  imita- 
tion of  them,  domed  them,  pinnacled  them,  decorated  them,  and  Byzantine 
art  was  born,  with  all  the  symbolism  of  its  ornament — the  lily,  the  serpent, 
the  sacred  anagram  of  the  fish,  the  trefoil  and  quatre-foil  representing  the 
Trinity  and  the  four  evangelists,  the  cross  composed  of  five  circles,  and 
innumerable  others.  Doubtless  this  symbolism  was  a  great  stimulant  to 
thought  and  to  fancy,  made  doubly  so  by  the  history  it  hinted  and  inter- 
preted in  the  absence  of  books,  and  evidently  it  wrought  with  force  upon 
the  imagination  of  those  not  yet  so  civilized  as  the  Byzantine  builders ; 
and  wherever  the  old  Roman  shapes,  or  remembrance  of  them,  existed 
throughout  the  boundaries  of  the  ancient  dominion,  the  Byzantine  laid 
hold  of  them  in  the  round  -  arched,  domed,  and  spired  Romanesque  and 
Romance  styles.  The  Byzantine  had  all  the  impulse  of  the  new  religion 
that  formed  it ;  it  wras  thoroughly  vitalized,  and  easily  wrought  its  will  on 
the  decaying  substance  of  dead  ideas.  As  it  slowly  travelled  on  its  north- 
ern and  western  journey,  it  more  rapidly  moved  southward,  was  seized 
upon  by  the  Saracens  at  the  conquest  of  Damascus,  its  ornament  bent  to 
their  uses,  and  in  its  new  guise — from  which  copies  of  living  objects  were 
excluded — was  called  Saracenic,  and  was  carried  by  its  masters  into  Egypt, 
into  Sicily,  and  Spain  ;  and  whether  the  Northern  and  Western  artists, 
who  had  been  employed  meanwhile  in  elaborating  the  rectangular  basil- 
icas, chanced  to  see  it  there,  or  whether  the  thing  was  only  working  itself 
out  through  the  necessities  of  construction,  the  eleventh  century  saw  the 
opening  of  that  style  where  the  idea  of  the  Southern  tent  and  of  the  long 
vista  of  the  Northern  forest  met  in  the  aisles  and  pinnacles  with  which 
the  Gothic  came  to  its  splendid  blossom  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
Thought  was  alive  at  last.  The  human  mind,  that  had  so  long  been  be- 
numbed beneath  the  pressure  of  superstition  acting  on  the  animal  nature, 
began  to  stir ;  it  had  thrown  off  the  shackles  of  the  Middle- Age  scholasti- 
cism— contending  shadows  of  words.  The  people  had  outgrown  the  Cru- 
sades that  had,  however,  enriched  their  experience  and  made  them  cos- 
mopolitan ;  all  that  the  Arabs  of  Spain  could  so  long  have  taught  but  for 
the  suspicion  of  the  theologians,  became  familiar  to  certain  of  them  ;  they 
began  to  look  about  and  see  what  there  was  in  the  world  that  Aristotle 
did  not  know,  and  they  took  hold  of  nature  as  a  child  does  to  whom  all  is 
new.  Roger  Bacon  was  born ;  the  laws  of  optics  were  discovered ;  the 
property  of  lenses;  the  elastic  force  of  steam  and  gas;  gunpowder;  the 
compass;  voyages  were  taken,  and  geography  loomed  into  sight  like  the 
shores  of  another  world ;  the  feudal  law  gave  way  before  the  famous  Ro- 
man law  that  governs  us  to-day;  printing  wras  invented;  the  Renais- 
sance had  dawned,  and  was  sweeping  forward  to  its  noon — the  Renais- 


y°  ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 

sauce  which  may  be  dated  from  the  year  1300,  not  long  before  Dante's 
birth. 

In  France  this  brilliant  dawning  went  under  a  cloud  in  its  first  century. 


Italian  Oak  Chair,  Henri  II. ;  Walnut  Credence,  Louis  XII. ;  French  and  Flemish  Pottery. 

Burgundy  had  been  a  stronghold  of  monks  and  of  the  false  scholasti- 
cism that  concerned  itself  with  phantasms  instead  of  things — scholasticism 
that  died  hard,  that  got  the  upper  hand,  indeed,  and  wasted  three  precious 
centuries  there  with  theological  puzzles,  reducing  chemistry  to  alchemy 
again,  astronomy  to  astrology,  and  mathematics  to  magic.  But  in  Italy, 
Dante  and  Petrarch  and  Boccaccio,  lighted  on  their  path  by  what  the  Re- 
naissance had  already  done  in  France  with  the  Provencal  poets  and  trou- 
badours, and  leaning  on  the  music  of  the  tongue  they  used,  founded  the 
Italian  language,  restored  classic  studies,  sought  and  found  ancient  man- 
uscripts, which  Petrarch  copied,  and  begged  his  friends  to  copy  and  mul- 
tiply, a  century  before  the  printer.    And  with  that  the  taste  for  classic 


THE  RENAISSANCE. 


91 


study  grew  and  spread ;  the  antique  was  in  eager  demand ;  explorers  ran- 
sacked the  corners  of  the  old  empire,  and  resurrected  from  their  long  bur- 
ial the  broken  sculptures,  the  vases,  the  mosaics,  that  Constantine's  edict 
had  overthrown — a  resurrection  of  wonders — and  a  new  art  fed  upon  the 
old.  Then  Cimabue  and  Giotto  painted ;  Brnnelleschi  measured  Rome 
and  rebuilt  Florence.  All  the  world  began  to  feel  the  impulse:  Chaucer 
sung ;  Columbus  discovered  America ;  Copernicus  discovered  the  laws  of 
the  universe ;  the  Cid  was  written ;  Raphael  and  Leonardo  lived ;  Mi- 
chael Angelo  and  Titian,  Ariosto  and  Tasso,  Diirer,  Camoens,  Paracelsus. 
France  took  up  the  march;  Greek  savants  came  over  from  Constantino- 
ple, and  Greek  studies  prevailed  as  Latin  ones  had  done  in  Italy.  In  the 
next  reign  Francis  I.  returned  from  the  long  Italian  wars,  and  brought 
Italian  remembrances  with  him ;  Rabelais  and  Ronsard  rose,  Scaliger  and 
Montaigne.  The  eye  wearied  of  old  lines,  and  craved  new  forms  of 
beauty ;  the  sight  of  the  unburied  antiquities,  the  rumor  of  their  loveli- 
ness, caused  a  revulsion  from  Gothic  grimness  and  distortion ;  the  clas- 


Flemish  Chair,  16S0 ;  Oak  Credence,  Francis  I. ;  Screen  in  Flemish  Tapestry. 


sicists  had  their  way  in  France  as  they  did  in  Florence ;  the  Louvre  was 
made  over,  Fontainebleau  was  built ;  and  the  Renaissance,  whatever  its 
results,  reached  its  extreme  at  length  with  Tycho  Brahe  in  science,  fol- 


92 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Armoire  inlaid  with  Marble  arid  Colored  Wood,  Francis  1. 5  Italian  Walnut  Chair,  Seventeenth  Century; 

Bust  in  White  Faience,  Rouen. 

lowed  quickly  as  he  was  by  Kepler  and  Galileo,  witli  Lather  in  religion, 
with  Palladio  in  art. 

Of  course  such  a  great  tide,  as  this  uprising  of  the  intellect  w7as,  could 
not  thus  sweep  through  the  world  without  reaching  all  the  by-places  and 
sending  currents  into  the  narrowest  channels ;  and  thus  it  was  that  it 
readied  every  man's  hearth.  And  wThen  it  had  revived  literature,  breathed 
new  breath  into  art,  remodelled  churches  and  palaces,  it  set  about  remod- 
elling furniture.  Printing  had  superseded  the  Gothic  cathedral.  Those 
who  had  studied  the  history  of  the  world  and  of  their  country,  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  virtues  and  vices,  the  lessons  of  handicraft  and  the  beau- 
ties of  religion,  in  the  thousands  and  thousands  of  figures  carved  on  the 
cathedral,  could  study  these  tilings  to  infinitely  more  advantage  between 
the  covers  of  a  book.  The  Gothic  cathedral  wTas  practically  ended,  and 
with  it  Gothic  carving  and  Gothic  shapes.  Meanwhile  the  universal  ap- 
plication of  the  Roman  law,  giving  right  and  equity  and  the  protection  of 


THE  RENAISSANCE. 


93 


government  to  every  citizen,  hindered  the  necessity  of  any  man's  making 
his  house  a  fortress,  and  the  castle  became  the  chateau,  palace,  manor- 
house,  hall,  grange.  The  manor-house  and  palace  then,  with  their  great 
glass  windows,  their  light  and  airy  rooms,  their  balconies  and  gardens,  and 
their  intimate  home  life,  from  which  the  communism  of  the  clan  had  ut- 
terly disappeared,  required  no  more  hard  and  formal  shapes  in  the  furnish- 
ing and  adorning,  bat  shapes  fit  for  ease  and  enjoyment ;  and  thus  the 
Roman  law  brought  Roman  luxury  again,  and  with  the  unearthing  of  the 
Pandects  at  Amalfi,  long  before  Pompeii  shook  off  her  ashes  her  splendors 
were  revived.  The  Italian  cities,  alive  and  answering  to  the  age,  as  com- 
mercial cities  always  are,  were  already  rich  in  luxury.  Venice,  through 
her  intercourse  with  the  Levant,  teemed  with  Oriental  beauty ;  Florence 
modified  this  by  the  clarified  and  cultured  taste  of  her  court ;  Pisa  and 
Genoa  were  not  far  behind.  When  the  French  princes  married  Italian 
princesses,  the  latter  brought  their  luxury  and  love  of  beauty  with  them ; 
and  the  artists  who  had  wrought  the  Flamboyant  Gothic  to  its  last  degree 
of  attenuation  seized  this  Venetian  and  Florentine  brilliancy  and  covered 
it  with  French  originality.  What  Francis  I.  began,  Catherine  de'  Medici, 
the  wife  of  Henri  Deux,  continued,  and  Mary  de'  Medici,  the  mother  of 
Louis  Treize,  strove  to  uphold.  With  the  latter  monarch  the  Renaissance, 
in  furniture  at  any  rate,  may  be  said  to  end,  as  the  next  reign — in  which 
the  tide  of  thought,  checked  three  hundred  years  before,  flowed  back  over 
France — brought  in  something  with  an  immense  difference ;  although  all 
styles  since  the  period  of  Louis  Treize  belong  derivatively  to  the  Renais- 
sance, yet  they  have  acquired  a  more  distinctive  character,  and,  as  one 
might  say,  a  personal  identity. 

All  this  thorough  change  of  style  in  furniture  was  made  the  more  pos- 
sible by  the  fact  that  the  wars,  from  the  time  of  the  Crusades  downward, 
had  so  told  upon  the  resources  of  many  of  the  nobles  that  they  had  been 
obliged  to  sell  portions  of  their  patrimony,  the  land  had  been  divided  and 
subdivided,  wealth  had  been  created,  and  there  were  a  multitude  of  buyers, 
the  money  of  the  rich  bourgeois  being  as  much  worth  to  the  artisan  as  any 
other  money.  Every  article  made  was  made,  of  course,  to  fit  the  new  life, 
and  not  the  old  idea.  They  all  became  lighter,  easier  to  handle,  their  con- 
struction unwisely  less  apparent,  their  ornament  the  main  consideration ; 
the  heavy  hinges  were  dropped,  the  elaborate  hammered  iron -work,  the 
locks ;  delicate  mouldings  appeared,  panels  glazed  with  exquisite  faience, 
carvings  where  classic  fancy  yet  wrestled  with  Gothic  monsters;  in  the 
later  era,  marquetry  of  rare  woods,  and  incrustation  of  tortoise-shell  and 
brass,  mother-of-pearl,  ivory,  and  niello-work.  And  thus  composed  of  vari- 
ous elements,  a  mixture  of  all  the  world  had  ever  seen,  but  essaying  to 


94 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


clarify  itself  along  the  way,  the  Kenaissance  swept  forward  to  its  full  de- 
velopment and  perfection  in  the  revival  of  the  ancient  Roman  arabesques, 
the  imitation  of  fruit  and  flower,  and  leaf  and  bird,  the  banishment  of 
shield  and  strap,  the  exclusion  of  sym- 
bolism, the  recognition  of  nothing  but 
absolute  beauty,  the  delight  of  the 
aesthetic  sense,  the  worship  of  the 
curve,  the  high  comedy  of  "Much 
Ado  About  Nothing"  and  of  "As 
You  Like  It"  in  the  Italian  Cinque- 
cento.  For  the  Gothic  had  meant 
aspiration  to  the  unknown,  the  open- 
ing of  life  on  the  side  of  the  soul, 
while  the  Renaissance  in  art  meant 
nothing  but  the  passing  moment  and 
the  enjoyment  of  the  senses. 

After  the  lightness  and  less  sol- 
emn character  of  the  pieces  of  fur- 
niture in  the  Renaissance,  the  chief 
characteristic  is  their  ornament ;  their 
shape,  meanwhile,  ceasing  almost  en- 
tirely to  present  anything  original. 
This  ornament  is  so  peculiar,  that  no 
one  who  has  once  become  acquainted 
with  it  can  fail  to  recognize  it.  It 
everywhere  follows  and  strives  for 
the  classic,  dallying  on  the  way  with 
the  Byzantine  that  enchains  and  mas- 
ters it,  and  haunted,  meanwhile,  by  the 
old  Gothic  ghost  that  will  not  down. 

It  is  full  of  delicate  interlacings  in  the  beginning,  intricate  linear  tracery, 
line  scroll-work,  and  conventional  foliage — that  is,  the  foliage  treated  upon 
a  geometrical  plan.  This  is  the  form  known  as  the  Trecento,  and  which 
owes  a  great  debt  to  the  Saracen.  After  the  year  1400  it  leaves  the  old 
traditional  subjects,  and  seeks  new  ones  to  its  mind — natural  rendering  of 
fruit  and  flower  and  insect  and  other  objects ;  and  at  that  time,  the  period 
of  the  Quattrocento,  the  cartouch,  or  scrolled  and  pierced  shield -work, 
appears,  borrowed  from  heraldry.  It  is  the  era,  then,  of  Luca  della  Rob- 
bia,  of  niello-work,  of  enamelled  pottery.  And  Anally,  after  the  year  1500, 
the  cartouch  and  strap  disappear,  the  arabesque  perfects  itself  with  ex- 
quisite lightness  and  grace,  classical  details  abound,  especially  the  old 


THE  RENAISSANCE. 


95 


Greek  anthemion,  the  fret,  and  the  acanthus,  sculptures  of  scarcely  sur- 
passed loveliness,  and  grotesqueries  so  full  of  spirit  that  the  whole  seems 
to  be  a  style  of  light  high  comedy,  suitable  only  to  pleasure,  to  the  delights 
of  a  sensuous  love  of  beauty.  And  yet  it  has  been  used  on  funeral  monu- 
ments. 

But  this  last  development  of  the  style,  the  Cinque-cento,  was  one  that 
required  too  wide  and  deep  a  knowledge  for  the  usual  decorator ;  besides 
being  an  artist,  he  must  be  antiquarian,  scholar,  scientist,  and  poet;  and  it 
was  only  for  about  fifty  years  that  it  was  pursued. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  no  style  presents  such  a  medley  as  the  whole 
career  of  the  Renaissance — classical  and  Saracenic  ornaments  on  the  same 
piece  of  work;  panels  faceted  and  cut  like  jewels;  the  square  parting  the 
circle ;  human  and  ideal  figures,  and  those  of  birds  and  beasts  and  reptiles, 
natural,  conventional,  and  grotesque;  the  crescent,  the  vase,  the  cartouch ; 
all  flat  decoration :  a  harnessing  of  straps,  buckles,  ribbons.  It  is  the 
style  of  caprice ;  set  free  from  the  rules  that  had  so  long  bound  it,  the 
art  revelled  in  uncontined  fantasy. 


Piano,  Louis  XIII. 


It  was  the  second  stage  of  this  style  that  Francis  I.  brought  into 
France,  and  that  was  so  universally  adopted  there  under  his  successor,  in 
furniture  and  in  all  other  ornamentation,  that  it  acquired  the  name  of 
Henri  Deux.  Its  shapes  were  tall  and  rather  narrow  ;  frequently  the  legs 
of  the  larger  pieces  were  vase-like,  with  the  smaller  vase  of  the  flat  panel 
upon  the  flat  front ;  there  were  tiny  pyramidal  panels  cut  in  jewel  forms, 


96 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


scattered  here  and  there;  sometimes  four  small  circles  around  a  fifth 
made  the  central  ornament  of  large  panels,  recalling  the  Byzantine,  while 
there  were  squares  parting  ellipses,  and  triangles  broken  again  by  circular 
forms,  which  latter,  when  surmounting  any  article,  seem  to  be  a  remi- 
niscence of  the  Gothic  dais,  possibly  of  the  Gothic  freemason ;  there  were 
scrolled  and  conventional  and  natural  floriage  and  fruit ;  cartouches,  and 
intimations  of  straps  and  buckles  were  everywhere;  and  slender  columns 
with  Ionic  volutes,  and  echinus,  and  guilloche,  announced  the  influence  of 
the  Classic.  This  style,  with  more  or  less  degeneration,  prevailed  during 
several  of  the  brief  reigns  which  followed  that  of  Henri  Deux.  It  was 
furniture  of  this  description  that  surrounded  Mary  Stuart  when  her  home 
was  at  the  French  court.  But  with  the  bloody  religious  wars  in  that  clay 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  there  was  a  general  decadence  of  all  decorative  ideas 

and  the  application  of  them.  The 
people  were  occupied  with  weightier 
matters ;  and  the  furniture  of  the 
reigns  of  Henri  Quatre  and  Louis 
Treize  is  heavy  and  sad  in  comparison, 
the  gayeties  and  fripperies  usually 
wanting,  but  with  the  material  adorn- 
ment of  rich  inlay  of  ebony,  lapis 
lazuli,  pearl,  and  other  costly  varie- 
gated substances.  Occasionally  there 
were  articles  of  satisfying  beauty  in 
the  Louis  Treize,  of  whose  initial  ideas  the  artists  of  to-day  have  known 
how  to  take  advantage;  but,  as  a  rule,  a  room  in  that  style  is  so  dismally 
dreary  and  formal  as  to  be  almost  funereal ;  the  exuberant  carving,  when 
not  ponderous  and  offensively  out  of  taste,  has  become  a  meagre  artifice, 
the  greater  part  of  the  ornament  of  the  wood  is  simply  turned  and  twist- 
ed, taking  and  giving  pleasant  lights,  but  betraying  a  paucity  of  fancies. 
The  fringes  are  the  principal  adornment  of  the  seats,  and  the  chief  beauty 
is  in  the  material. 

Wonderfully  different  from  that  of  this  grave  style  is  the  furniture  of 
the  Cinque-cento,  a  style  which  aspired  to  nothing  but  to  display  itself  in 
curves  of  complete  loveliness,  with  no  reference  to  any  other  emotion  than 
pleasure;  a  style  crowded  with  a  fantasy  of  grace  and  luxuriance  and 
laughter — the  laughter  of  the  gods ;  a  style  where  every  object  in  nature 
or  art  was  seized  upon  and  turned  into  beauty  and  made  merry  with, 
and  where  the  refined  banter  of  the  grotesque  saw  harlequins  rollicking 
in  the  Grecian  honeysuckles,  wrought  the  acanthus  scrolls  into  dolphins, 
and  set  fools'  caps  on  the  chimeras.     Its  shapes  are  stately,  its  figures 


Dinhig-table,  Louis  XIII. 


THE  RENAISSANCE. 


97 


perfect,  its  humor  triumphant,  its  'arabesques  so  rich  in  detail  that  hardly 
an  inch  escapes  decoration  with  a  grace  and  exuberance  of  line  that,  in 
maintaining  its  curve,  runs  into  all  sorts  of  vagaries — imps  frolicking  in 
the  flowers,  dragon -flies  that  have  half  the  mind  to  be  winged  griffins, 
leaves  that  fashion  crowned,  and  bearded  faces,  the  gayety  of  the  whole  in 
its  free  fancy  never  forgetting  beauty.  One  can  scarcely  realize  the  grace 
and  resplendence  of  such  a  piece  of  furniture  adorned  with  the  inlay  of 
variegated  stones,  picked  out  with  gold,  and  presenting  the  full  wealth  of 
life-like  colors  that  distinguish  the  Cinque-cento. 


Ebony  Cabinet,  Child's  Walnut  Chair,  Oak  Easel,  Louis  XIII. ;  Italian  Sconce,  with  Copper  and  Gold 

Chasing,  Sixteenth  Century. 

Nothing  more  luxurious,  perhaps  nothing  more  enervating,  can  be  con- 
ceived than  lovely  lofty  rooms  ornamented  and  finished  in  this  style,  to 
which  only  the  soft  and  silvery  sheens  of  satin  belong  as  drapery.  It  is 
the  furniture  of  summer  palaces ;  its  construction  requires  artists ;  its  pur- 
chase the  revenue  of  kingdoms.    It  tells  in  itself  the  whole  march  of  life, 


OS  ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 

from  the  military  encampment  in  the  gloomy  halls  of  the  dark  castle,  to 
the  dancing,  laughing,  flower-clad  life  in  the  lighted,  sumptuous  apart- 
ments whose  low  windows  open  on  verandas  round  which  the  gardens 
bloom  and  the  fountains  leap. 


Renaissance  Table. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN. 


101 


XV. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN. 


HILE  the  Renaissance  was  working  its  way  to  the  beauty  of  the 


▼  ▼  antique  in  Italy,  it  was  having  no  such  success  in  Holland ;  for 
although  their  Flemish  neighbor  caught  its  spirit,  the  products  of  the 
Dutch  themselves  remained  dull  and  heavy  evidences  of  the  use  of  a  man- 
ner whose  raison  d'etre  was  not  understood.  In  their  struggle  for  civic 
life  and  religious  liberty,  they  had  little  thought  to  waste  on  gewgaws ; 
but  their  habits  of  thrift  remained,  and  if  people  wished  their  furnitures 
thus  and  thus  shaped  and  thus  carved,  the  Dutch  made  them  to  suit  the 
market.  Nevertheless,  age  adds  a  sanctity  to  everything;  and  many  of 
those  old  Dutch  cabinets,  gloomy,  top-heavy,  and  overloaded  as  they  are, 
sometimes  covered  with  carving  to  the  last  splinter,  and  sometimes  a  solid 
patchwork  of  pottery  of  the  most  exquisite  colors,  are  still  so  much  sought 
after  that  it  pays  the  counterfeiter  well  to  fashion  them  in  darkened  wood 
with  worn  profiles  to-day. 

It  was  by  way  of  Holland  that  the  Renaissance  reached  England,  partly 
by  reason  of  the  extensive  commerce  with  the  Low  Countries  ;  partly,  per- 
haps, through  the  English  sympathy  with  the  people  in  their  struggle 
there.  It  is  only  to  Dutch  example  that  we  can  attribute  the  heavy  char- 
acter of  the  Elizabethan  style  in  furniture — the  immense  diameters  of  the 
supports,  for  instance,  as  sturdy  as  the  legs  of  any  plethoric  burgomaster. 

The  Gothic  had  already  begun  to  forget  itself  in  England,  and  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  had  bent  its  high  flight  into  the  hunched  and  low- 
browed Tudor  arch.  It  was  ready  now  for  further  change,  but  not  quite 
ready  to  surrender  its  existence ;  and  thus  all  the  Renaissance  that  came 
into  England  through  the  Elizabethan  gate  had  still  to  pay  tribute  to  the 
Gothic  on  its  way.  Neither  pure  Classic,  nor  pure  Gothic,  nor  pure  Re- 
naissance, it  yet  had  a  certain  royal  warrant  of  its  own,  a  stately  charm,  of 
which  the  English  are  still  proud,  speaking  of  it  as  the  "  noble  Elizabethan 
manner,"  although  this  applies  to  the  decoration  of  walls  and  ceilings,  per- 
haps, more  closely  than  to  articles  of  furniture.  There  are  many  ancient 
drawing-rooms  in  England,  in  whose  decoration  there  may  be  observed  a 
delicate  fancy  of  interlacing  line  on  nearly  as  satisfying  a  plane  as  the  Sar- 


102 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


acenic.  The  strap-work,  indeed,  which  was  the  first  distinguishing  feature 
of  the  Elizabethan,  was,  after  all,  nothing  but  a  play  of  line,  and  allowed 
the  greatest  liberty  to  the  individual  artist.    It  required  genius,  though, 


Elizabethan  Table  from  Leeds  Castle,  Kent. 


to  develop  it  properly,  and  it  was  too  frequently  nothing  but  a  medley  of 
uninteresting  sequences ;  and  when  the  shield-work  was  added,  and  pierced 
shield -work  at  that,  it  sometimes  became  confusion  worse  confounded. 
This  strap  and  shield  work,  it  may  be  remembered,  was  very  noticeable 
in  the  Henri  Deux  style  in  France,  with  which,  indeed,  the  Elizabethan 
was  contemporary,  that  style  ranging  over  the  reigns  of  several  successive 
monarchs. 

Shield-work — the  cartouch — is  simply  what  it  purports  to  be,  the  rep- 
resentation of  the  armorial  shield  and  its  supports,  the  latter  pierced  in 
every  conceivable  manner,  with  circles,  lozenges,  crescents,  and  all  sorts  of 
openings,  at  first  sight  without  rhyme  or  reason,  although  the  interstices 
will  be  found,  on  examination,  to  assist  in  the  general  outline  and  effect. 
This  use  of  the  cartouch  seems  to  be  derived  from  the  escutcheon  and  its 
heraldic  ensigns,  and  the  influence  of  those  armorial  bearings  in  the  stormy 
periods  of  their  assumption.  Strap-work,  also,  is  a  term  used  as  fitly  as 
words  can  be  used  in  description.  What  it  describes  is  an  elaborate  tra- 
cery, in  imitation  of  straps  and  buckles,  varied  sufficiently  to  atone  for  the 
meagreness  of  the  type ;  and  where  it  pleases  at  all,  pleasing  by  its  repeti- 


Council-chamber  oi'  Oourtiay. 


THE  ELIZABETHAN. 


105 


tion,  its  symmetry,  and  the  exact  way  in  which  each  line  seems  to  fit  its 
place.  It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  to  its  origin  this  strap -work, 
used  so  largely  in  Saracenic  ornament  as  to  suggest  the  Arab  love  and 
admiration  of  the  horse  of  the  desert ;  and  to  discover  if  both  strap  and 
cartouch  were  not  reminiscent  of  the  time  of  chivalry  and  the  Crusades, 
with. all  their  harnessing,  their  shields,  and  banners. 

The  Elizabethan  pure  and  simple,  that  belonging  to  the  exact  era  of 
the  queen,  has  this  strap-work  sometimes  finished  off  with  slight  scrolls — 
foliages,  the  Italians  called  them — and  associated  with  some  classical  ideas 
not  yet  very  exclusively  or  carefully  managed ;  straps  appearing  well  riv- 
eted to  the  middle  of  classic  ornaments,  and  antique  shapes  rising,  like  the 
afrite  out  of  the  jar,  from  the  curious  Renaissance  pilaster,  neither  a  vase 
nor  a  pilaster,  in  truth,  broken  as  it  is  half-way  by  the  rising  shape,  like 
those  of  the  Termse,  with  which  the  ancients  made  their  boundaries  sacred, 
smaller  at  the  base  than  anywhere  else,  and  bearing  straps,  arabesques,  and 
rosettes  on  its  face.  The  spirit  which  allowed  this  mingling  of  the  Gothic 
and  the  Classic  in  the  Elizabethan  is  nowhere  more  perfectly  illustrated 
than  where  Shakspeare,  in  his  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,"  sends  his 
Gothic  fairies  to  frolic  in  the  Athenian  forest. 

You  will  sometimes  find  an  Elizabethan  chimney-piece,  the  fluted  and 
channelled  columns  and  the  entablature  of  which  leave  little  to  be  desired 
except  the  absence  of  the  strap,  which  is  apt  to  be  bound  somewhere  about 
their  length.  Yet  oftener  the  chimney-pieces  are  examples  of  cumbrous 
classicality,  in  which  the  drawing  of  the  figure  is  not  sufficiently  correct 
to  warrant  the  artist  in  giving  the  whole  of  it.  Over  the  chimney-piece 
there  was  frequently  an  elaborate  dais,  and  another  over  the  door,  thus 
giving  prominence  to  the  hospitality  of  the  age,  dignifying  the  door-way 
of  the  guest's  entrance  and  the  chimney-side  to  which  he  was  made  wel- 
come. Above  these  places  pithy  mottoes,  expressive  of  the  duties  of  the 
entertainer,  were  carved. 

Nothing  can  be  finer  in  a  lofty  room  than  an  old  Elizabethan  ceiling 
with  all  its  intersecting  curves  and  angles.  Some  of  these  ceilings  were 
of  a  rich  plaster-work,  with  deep  square  caissons,  and  bosses  at  all  the  in- 
tersections, or  else  a  light  crossing  and  recrossing  of  the  interlaced  arcs 
and  chords  of  a  small  circle,  with  a  mask,  a  rose,  a  leaf,  or  a  star,  at  every 
crossing  of  the  lines  ;  but  others  were  of  the  oaken  beams,  carved  and  gilt 
and  often  picked  out  in  gay  colors. 

The  panelling  of  the  Elizabethan  mansions  was  not  the  linen  or  parch- 
ment panel,  popular  in  the  preceding  reign,  although  that  was  frequently 
adopted,  but  a  simpler  rectangular  form  of  ornamentation  that  breaks  up 
the  surface  of  the  wainscot  nearly  to  the  top  of  the  room. 


106 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


The  Elizabethan  chair  is  generally  a  very  narrow  and  high-backed,  low- 
seated  chair,  and  except  in  its  ornament,  where  the  scroll  plays  a  grace- 
ful but  still  rather  unmeaning  part,  does  not  vary  greatly  from  the  chairs 
that  preceded  it ;  and  we  have  seen  chairs  with  an  indubitable  genealogy 
attached  to  them  as  Henri  Deux  and  as  Louis  Treize,  square,  uncouth, 
half-backed,  with  twisted  wood  and  fringed  coverings,  that  could  not  be 
told  from  other  of  the  chairs  used  in  Elizabeth's  day;  there  were  also 
broad  straight -backed  seats,  indicative  of  a  time  when  lounging  was  not 
thought  of,  and  hardly  comfort,  unless  the  human  back  was  a  stouter  mech- 
anism than  it  is  to-day.  But  the  tables,  beds,  and  cabinets  of  the  period 
are  much  more  novel,  and  are  to  be  rivalled,  in  the  queer  taste  they  dis- 
play, only  by  the  Dutch.  These  are  characterized,  wherever  the  column 
is  used  in  their  construction — and  that  is  almost  everywhere — by  a  slight 
inversion  of  regular  Greek  architecture,  in  a  base  of  foliage  to  the  column, 
something  after  the  style  of  the  Assyrian  base,  although  in  that  the  leaves 
grow  down  instead  of  up.  Out  of  this  globular  mass  of  foliage  the  bulky 
column  rises  to  complete  itself,  sometimes  going  straight  to  the  top,  some- 
times pausing  on  the  way  to  bulge  out  in  another  great  globular  mass,  as 
if  the  not  yet  century  old  discovery  that  the  world  was  round  was  a  fact 
that  the  artists  were  still  playing  with.  There  are  yet  existing  massive 
tables  of  the  period  that  stand  on  four  legs  bound  together  by  strong 

cross-bars  at  right  angles,  as  if  they 
were  not  stout  enough  to  go  alone, 
although  able  to  uphold  a  moderate 
roof ;  at  some  distance  above  the 
cross-bars  the  legs  effloresce  into  the 
big  spheres,  the  foliage  on  the  lower 
half  of  the  sphere  growing  up,  and 
on  the  upper  half  growing  down,  di- 
vided in  the  middle  by  a  ring  or 

Elizabethan  Table  from  Longford  Castle.  J  g  & 

strap,  or  else  efflorescing  into  a  hemi- 
sphere of  acanthus  leaves.  Other  elephantine  structures  are  extension- 
tables  made  to  pull  apart  till  the  top  falls  into  place,  when  it  has  doubled 
its  apparent  size.  There  are  cabinets,  too,  of  equally  heavy  design,  with 
the  vase-like  pilasters  and  their  Termse  between  the  doors,  and  with  all 
sorts  of  relief  in  the  favorite  style  of  work,  sometimes  with  sculptured 
figures  and  groups,  the  mighty  cornice  meanwhile  upheld  by  pillars  that 
again  put  forth  the  globular  excrescence  at  some  point,  usually  at  about 
the  centre  of  their  length ;  there  are  others  whose  great  curling  sideposts 
are  one  enormous  scroll,  beside  which  the  inspiring  but  bulky  Dutch  ones, 
with  their  finely  bevelled  panels,  have  an  air  of  noble  dignity.    The  great 


THE  ELIZABETHAN. 


107 


size  of  the  rooms  for  which  these  articles  were  designed  should  always  be 
taken  into  account  both  in  judging  them  and  imitating  them;  for  massive 
and  mighty  pieces,  within  narrow 
bounds,  simply  assume  their  fit 
and  unnoticeable  size  when  space 
expands  around  them.  Although 
the  style  exercises  a  certain  fasci- 
nation from  the  fact,  perhaps,  that 
it  is  so  essentially  and  individually 
a  style,  and  from  its  suggestion  of 
a  people  making  use  of  it,  full  of 
strength  and  of  ideas,  its  interest 
attaches  to  the  past,  and  it  is  not 
exactly  suited,  we  think,  to  mod- 
ern reproduction.  Yet  there  wTas 
something  about  this  furniture  cu- 
riously in  accord  with  the  mighty 
farthingales  and  high  heels  and 
starched  ruffs  of  the  ladies  who 
moved  among  it,  waited  on  by 
their  ruffed  and  rapiered,  stiff  and  stately,  gallants.  Hardly  any  other 
would  seem  so  much  in  keeping  with  stout  old  Queen  Bess  herself;  and 
it  acquires  another  interest  when  we  remember  that  it  was  articles  of  this 
description  that  surrounded  Shakspeare  and  Raleigh  and  Bacon  and  Spen- 


Elizabethan  Table  from  Flaxton  Hall,  Sufl' 


ser,  and  all  the  rest  of  that  noble  cluster 
history  in  the  stature  of  demi-gods. 


that  loom  through  the  mist  of 


108 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XVI. 

THE  JACOBEAN. 

WITH  the  ascension  of  James  I.  to  the  English  throne,  we  can  as- 
sume that  such  a  greater  degree  of  splendor  was  added  to  every- 
thing as  usually  appears  at  the  crowning  of  another  monarch,  with  the 

new  hopes  and  promises  of  the  begin- 
ning of  a  reign,  and  the  different  fash- 
ions caused  by  the  new  individuality. 
And  as  nothing  at  home,  easily  reached 
and  commonly  seen,  is  ever  quite  so 
much  valued  as  that  which  comes  from 
abroad,  it  is  likely  that  many  articles 
of  splendor  were  then  brought  from 
across  the  water ;  for,  at  any  rate,  at 
this  time  another  influx  of  foreign  in- 
fluence is  seen  to  have  made  fresh  hav- 
oc with  such  Gothic  as  remained. 

The  shield,  which,  through  the 
preference  for  the  strap,  had  been  but 
sparsely  used  in  the  preceding  reign, 
and  which  had  already  much  more  vogue  on  the  Continent,  came  now  to 
be  the  centre  of  all  decoration,  and  was  lavished  everywhere  in  a  wild 
whirl  of  flourishing  curves,  together  with  the  previously  common  straps 
and  buckles  and  general  tackle  of  war.  Its  universal  use  gave  a  some- 
what less  interesting  air  to  the  decoration  than  it  had  when  the  purer  in- 
terlacing of  the  strap,  with  but  here  and  there  the  convolutions  of  the 
shield,  supplied  its  place. 

But  the  Jacobean  by  no  means  contented  itself  with  this  simpler  form 
of  Renaissance.  In  other  characteristics  it  tended  more  and  more  to  the 
Classic,  although  never  arriving  at  purity :  in  construction,  that  is,  the  hor- 
izontal of  the  antique  mingling  with  the  vertical  of  the  mediaeval,  and  a 
volute  upholding  a  pointed  arch ;  in  ornament,  the  Tudor  leaf  upon  a 
Grecian  frieze,  with  other  equally  maladroit  and  inappropriate  arrange- 
ments, the  furniture  being,  besides,  of  such  an  architectural  description  in 


THE  JACOBEAN. 


109 


its  main  outlines  that  columns  and  capitals  and  arches  and  architraves 
were  as  proper  to  cabinet  and  table  as  to  church  and  palace.  But  it  was 
not,  in  truth,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  thereafter  that  pure  classi- 
cism came  to  be  well  understood  in  England. 

Much  of  the  Flemish  furniture  corresponds  with  that  which  we  find 
in  England  during  the  Jacobean  era.  Indeed,  at  an  earlier  date  the  Flem- 
ings were  furnishing  English  mansions  with  something  like  monopoly, 
for  we  are  told  that  "the  chests  and  cupboards  used  in  England  in  the 
fifteenth  century  were  imported  from  Flanders:  this,  in  the  reign  of 
Richard  III.,  was  considered  to  act  so  prejudicially  to  the  interests  of 
English  workmen  that  a  law  was  made  'agaynst  straunger  artificiers,'  pro- 
hibiting, among  other  articles  of  furniture,  the  importation  of  cupboards." 
Whether  the  law  wTas  evaded  or  not  we  do  not  know,  but  certainly  there 
was  many  a  Flemish  cupboard  in  those  old  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean 
dwellings.  The  Flemish,  and  also  the 
German,  cabinet  and  credence,  when 
adorned  as  usual  with  carvings,  may  be 
recognized  by  their  more  dramatic  if 
less  graceful  character,  inclining  to  heav- 
iness albeit — the  Germans  choosing,  by- 
the-way,  a  rather  didactic  form  of  illus- 
trating in  a  literal  faithfulness  certain 
classic  and  Scriptural  legends.  But  al- 
though the  Flemish  carver  was  in  the 
condition  of  the  artist  who  complains 
that  "his  reach  exceeds  his  grasp" — the 
more  Northern  mind  never  quite  thor- 
oughly assimilating  the  light  caprices 
of  the  South,  and  apt  to  make  a  rude 
mimicry  of  its  charming  fooleries — his 
ideas  wrought  themselves,  notwithstand- 
ing, into  the  picturesque. 

Thus,  while  the  French  furnitures 
still  retained  the  stately  and  sombre 

.  .  i     i   c-  n  Flemish  Tables. 

character  into  which  their  art  had  tailen 

under  Henri  Quatre  and  Louis  Treize,  the  influence  of  the  Italian  form  of 
the  Renaissance,  through  the  filter  of  the  Flemish,  made  itself  very  dis- 
tinctly felt  in  the  Jacobean  of  the  English ;  not,  that  is,  so  much  in  the 
effort  of  the  Italian  toward  gesthetic  perfection  as  in  the  play  of  fancy, 
stimulated  by  rumor  and  sometimes  by  sight  of  the  new  forms,  but  unac- 
quainted with  the  laws  that  should  control  it.    And  even  those  Italian 


110 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


workmen  who  found  employment  in  ebenistme  in  England  must  have 
fettered  themselves  by  the  requirements  of  the  taste  around  them,  in 
great  measure. 

We  are  told  that  not  long  before  this  period  a  certain  large  scallop 
shell  had  been  brought  home  from  distant  seas,  and  that  it  took  the  eye  of 
the  decorators  amazingly.  A  scallop  shell  could  not,  however,  have  been 
any  new  thing,  for  it  had  long  ago  been  the  distinctive  badge  of  the  pil- 
grim who  had  visited  Palestine  and  picked  it  up  on  the  shores  there,  and 
the  escalop  was  a  permitted  bearing  on  the  heraldic  shield  of  one  whose 
ancestors  had  made  the  same  pilgrimage ;  and  Bernard  Palissy  had  used 

the  tertiary  shells  in  the  decoration  of 
his  pottery.  However  this  may  be,  it 
was  now  seized  by  the  designers  and 
used  at  every  turn,  never,  of  course, 
with  the  absurd  profuseness  of  a  later 
day,  but  quite  upon  the  verge  of  that 
profuseness.  If  upon  taking  a  chair 
you  were  not  startled  by  the  head  of  a 
monster  leering  over  your  shoulder,  or 
his  claws  protruding  beside  your  feet, 
you  were  likely  to  find  yourself  backed 
by  a  huge  scallop,  or  half  enclosed  in 
the  opening  valves  of  another.  Some- 
times the  effect,  in  a  sumptuous  draw- 
ing-room of  fairy  colors,  may  have  been 
pleasing ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  whole  chair, 
made  in  the  form  of  a  single  shell,  and 
the  long  couch,  moulded  with  the  whorls 
and  channels  of  such  a  shell  as  belongs 
to  Venus  Anadyomene,  can  hardly  be 
considered  either  so  worthy  or  so  beau- 
tiful as  merely  curious.  But  these  shell 
forms  and  the  shell  in  decoration  dis- 
puted with  the  cartouch  and  cuirs — as 
they  called  the  straps  abroad — with  ro- 
sette and  scroll,  with  the  fabulous  grif- 
fins, and  with  the  mermaids  of  the  grotesque,  whose  tails,  turning  into 
scrolls,  are  seen  dividing  both  to  the  right  and  left  in  the  ornamentation  of 
the  Jacobean  furnitures  and  chimney-pieces.  Still,  whatever  the  shapes,  the 
carvings  of  the  various  articles  were  sufficiently  rich,  however  questionable 
their  taste,  and  the  period  has  been  called  the  Cinque-cento  period  of  Eng- 


Jacobean  Cabinet. 


THE  JACOBEAN. 


Ill 


lish  art.  Yet,  if  such  a  thing  were  possible,  it  was  the  grotesquerie  of  the 
Cinque-cento  disassociated  from  its  loftier  beauty,  that  is  to  say,  what  we 
understand  by  the  word  grotesque  when  used  colloquially — the  monstrous 
and  ludicrous  rather  than  the  lovely — the  word  grotesque  coming  into  use 
from  the  fact  of  the  old  arabesques  that  inspired  the  Cinque-cento,  and 
with  which  the  Italian  so  delighted  itself,  having  originally  been  found  in 
the  grottos,  while  the  application  of  the  word  in  our  language  shows  suf- 
ficiently the  appreciation  which  such  things  found  at  that  time  in  the  gen- 
eral English  mind;  and  both  the  application  of  the  word  and  the  use 
made  of  the  designs  show. 


moreover,  that  an 
can  seldom  have 
natural  growth 


i 

art 


exotic 
a  healthy 
in  a  foreign 
land,  that  the  mind  which 
conceives  is  oftenest  the  only 
one  that  can  go  on  originat- 
ing in  the  special  line,  while 
the  outside  mind  can  only 
copy,  and  the  errors  of  the 
mere  copyist  are  wont  to  be 
equalled  only  by  his  vulgari- 
ties. If  in  the  earlier  Eliz- 
abethan there  were  massive 


Jacobean  Court  Cupboard. 


traits  to  accord  with  the  magnificent  monarch  of  the  era,  in  the  Jacobean, 
with  its  torture  of  outline  into  conceits  and  quirks  and  quips,  with  the 
profuseness  of  its  gilding,  with  its  affectation  of  acquaintance  with  foreign 
fashion,  even  with  the  stiffness  of  that  about  it  which  chanced  to  be  sim- 
ple, and  with  the  pedantic  ignorance,  if  we  may  say  so,  of  its  misuse  of 
classic  details,  we  are  reminded  only  of  the  vanity,  arrogance,  and  petty 
travesty  of  majesty  of  James  himself. 

Nevertheless,  the  custom  of  more  than  two  hundred  years  has  taken 
off  much  of  the  objectionable  in  this  style,  for  those  things  no  longer 
likely  to  be  repeated  cease  to  be  subjects  of  criticism,  and  are  regarded  as 
interesting  and  picturesque  memorials.  In  the  mean  while,  the  style  is 
valuable  as  showing  the  movements  of  the  English  mind  in  one  of  the 
many  processes  of  art.  The  scale  of  its  use  in  the  decoration  of  such 
stately  homes  as  Crewe  Hall,  Audley  End,  and  Holland  House — although 
the  former,  built  on  the  boundary-line  of  the  two  reigns,  is  as  often  cred- 
ited to  the  Elizabethan — its  broad  masses  of  light  and  shade,  and  its  quaint 
and  curious  elaboration,  render  it  stately  and  attractive ;  but  it  needs  all 
the  space  and  grandeur  surrounding  it  that  can  be  given  in  order  not  to 


112 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Diuhiff-room  of  Crewe  Hall. 


itself  that  is  original,  being  on  one  side 


be  vulgarized.  Having  so  little  in 
a  new  development  of  the  style  of  the  previous  half  century,  and  on  the 
other  an  ill-adapted  use  of  a  Southern  style  (the  Italian),  the  Jacobean  is 
not  often  considered  as  a  thing  by  itself,  but,  as  we  have  already  said,  it  is 

usually  regarded  as  a  freak,  and 
possibly  a  debasement,  of  the  less 
pretentious  but  more  pleasing 
Elizabethan. 

Of  late  years  a  revival  of  this 
style  has  taken  place  under  mod- 
ifications that  entitle  it  to  the 
name  of  Neo- Jacobean,  modern 
ideas  being  applied  to  the  fash- 
ions of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  and  modern  art  doing 
its  best  in  the  design  and  the  dar- 
ing yet  exquisite  arrangement 
of  colors  of  the  paper-hangings, 
which  were  unknown  for  nearly 
half  a  century  after  the  original 
Jacobean  came  into  vogue.  The 
principal  modification  which  the 


Another  Jacobean  Court  Cupboard. 


THE  JACOBEAN. 


113 


style  has  undergone  is  in  the  reduced  size  of  its  articles  and  of  their  mem- 
bers, so  that  the  huge  acorn  becomes  something  much  more  like  a  long 
slim  vase,  and  chimney-pieces  ornament  a  room  without  crushing  it  with 
their  importance,  in  the  dismissal  of  the  shield,  and  the  rendering  of  the 
tiny  Classic  balustrade  wherever  it  can  be  inserted,  while  the  old  Gothic 
cove  at  the  daised  top  of  sideboard  and  mantel  is  not  forgotten.  There 
are  many  mantel-piece  arrangements,  with  shelves  and  nooks  and  crannies 
for  the  security  and  display  of  knick-knacks,  in  this  new  form  of  the  style 
— a  form  whose  endeavor  seems  to  be  to  }3roduce  solidity  without  alto- 
gether losing  grace,  although  it  must  be  confessed  that,  in  lacking  the 
nobler  size  of  its  prototype,  it  does  not  entirely  escape  stiffness,  in  spite 
of  its  generally  pleasing  effect. 


114 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XVII. 

THE  LOUIS  QUATORZE. 

THE  grace  and  beauty  of  the  Renaissance,  while  it  was  still  pursuing 
its  serene  course  in  Italy,  and  endeavoring  to  make  headway  against 
the  Gothic  in  England,  had  been  falling  into  neglect  in  France,  so  that 
the  lovely  furnitures  of  the  reigns  of  Francis  I.  and  his  successor  would 
hardly  have  recognized  much  relationship  with  those  that  followed. 

It  is  true  that  the  later  furniture  was  still  well  and  solidly  built,  and 
there  yet  remain  frequent  specimens  of  great  beauty  and  much  interesting 
quaintness.  But,  in  the  main,  design  had  been  diverted  from  it,  owing  to 
foreign  wars  and  religious  disturbances,  with  a  decimated  and  impover- 
ished population  either  for  manufacturing  or  buying;  the  arts  in  general 
had  languished,  and  nearly  all  the  sweet  play  of  fancy  that  illustrated  tlu 
early  Renaissance  was  absent  from  the  furnitures  of  less  than  a  century 
after. 

It  was  only  when  the  splendors  of  the  court  of  the  Grande  Monarquc 
blazed  up,  that  furniture,  following  the  lead  of  architecture  and  general 
decoration,  took  a  fresh  departure,  and  clothed  itself  in  what  has  been 
called  a  new  style,  probably  because  it  is  almost  utterly  unlike  any  of  the 
old  ones,  constituting  so  veritable  a  rebirth  that  the  French  themselves  arc 
apt  to  consider  it  a  second  Renaissance.  If  it  was  not  entirely  novel  in 
its  repetitions,  it  was  in  its  motif',  it  retained,  for  instance,  the  cartouch  of 
previous  styles,  always  made  a  prominent  centre,  magnified  and  distorted ; 
but  the  scrolls,  the  ribbons,  the  straps,  that  accompanied  and  inwreathed 
these  cartouches,  were  used  not  only  as  ornament,  but  also  as  structure, 
and  fairly  turned  into  the  legs,  and  arms,  and  brackets,  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  various  articles  of  furniture  themselves,  although,  to  be  sure, 
it  had  some  excuse  for  such  treatment  in  the  excrescences  and  vagaries  of 
other  styles.  This  is  what  will  be  perceptible  to  any  one  studying  the 
outlines  of  a  table  or  chair  or  couch  in  this  style,  even  if  much  more  im- 
portant and  striking  differentiations  presently  develop  to  the  eye  both  in 
separate  pieces  and  in  the  broad  effect  of  many  in  furnishing  a  room. 

One  of  the  characteristic  elements  of  the  style  of  the  Louis  Quatorze, 
applied  to  furniture,  is  the  system  of  curves  and  flourishes  into  which 


THE  LOUIS  QUATORZE. 


115 


it  breaks  up  every  profile  and  surface  —  a  multitude  of  loose  profligate 
lines,  wanting  in  all  the  modesty  of  nature  or  majesty  of  art.  An  inverted 
S,  the  upper  and  lower  limbs  used  as  separate  features,  adorned  and  joined 
— the  shape  of  certain  lines  of  the  violin  infinitely  less  refined — expresses 
the  tendency  of  the  greater  part  of  its  outlines — loose  curvatures  that  filled 
the  ideal  of  grace  in  their  day  under  the  impression  that  they  obeyed  the 
line  of  beauty ;  but  the  line  of  beauty,  it  has  been  decided,  follows  a 
chaster  curve — one  that  does  not  launch  out  in  all  its  force  at  once,  but 
that  cherishes  some  repression  and  restraint.  The  style  avails  itself,  also, 
of  the  usual  forms  of  the  Renaissance,  but  always  with  this  recurrent 
setting;  and  it  cares  little  for  beauty  of  detail,  so  that  it  can  attain  sharp 
light  and  shade.  The  origin  of  the  style  would  seem  to  have  been  pri- 
marily in  decorative  purposes  in  building,  and  its  use  was  adopted  into 
furniture  from  that.  It  came  from  Italy,  and  it  was  largely  used  by  the 
Jesuits  in  their  structures.  While  exhibiting  at  first  a  semblance  of  pu- 
rity and  humility  in  the  absence  of  much  decorative  painting  and  color,  it 
used  the  most  brilliant  and  dazzling  of  all  possible  combinations  in  white- 
and-gold  stucco-work. 

In  the  preceding  century,  beautiful  and  superior  as  the  furniture  was, 
it  was  still  so  costly  in  table,  chair,  and  cabinet  that  only  the  very  wealthy 
could  indulge  in  anj^  great  amount  of  it.  Thus,  for  instance,  benches, 
tressels,  and  coffers  had  still  been  in  use  for  seats.  If  a  plain  citizen  had 
a  single  chair,  he  did  well.  And  in  general  the  rich  chairs  and  fauteuils 
belonged  to  those  who  could  afford  to  overlay  them  with  cloth  of  gold,  if 
they  wished  to  do  so ;  and  they  were  made  with  the  greatest  care,  Paris 
having  already  established  a  reputation  for  fine  work  in  this  department. 
The  arm-chair  was  still  so  unused  to  common  possession  that  it  had  not 
outworn  its  honors,  and  even  in  the  reign  of  the  Dieu-donne  himself,  as 
Louis  Quatorze  was  sometimes  called,  contests  were  maintained  for  the 
u  right  of  using  the  arm-chair"  in  the  royal  presence. 

But  with  the  introduction  of  the  new  style  and  its  resulting  manner 
of  work,  all  the  world  could  afford  chairs  and  tables.  Gilding  covered  a 
multitude  of  sins  then,  as  it  does  now ;  rude  work  escaped  observation 
under  the  slurred  light  that  gilding  casts,  and  gilt  deal  and  plaster  were 
immeasurably  cheaper  and  easier  to  attain  than  that  solid  seasoned  wood 
and  fine  carving  to  which  the  workman  needed  to  give  years.  Thus 
Paris  took  hold  of  the  new  style,  and  in  taking  hold  of  it  made  it  her 
own,  gave  it  eventually  another  identity,  and  at  once  a  wonderful  brill- 
iancy. The  means  taken  to  reach  this  identity  and  brilliancy  were  a  mul- 
tiplicity of  points  of  relief,  in  the  first  place,  and  an  indifference  to  sym- 
metry, in  the  second  place  —  a  disregard  and  sometimes  an  intentional 


110 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


avoidance  of  it,  as  by  that  means  greater  variety  of  light  and  shade  was 
attained;  and  that  was  always  the  end  in  view,  the  eonvex  and  the  con- 
cave alternating,  gilt  projection  upon  hollow  background.  Although  the 
general  scheme  was  classical,  countless  details  making  no  pretence  to  the 
classical  were  adopted:  shells,  flowers,  fruit,  birds  ;  scrolls  either  in  smooth 

outline  or  in  that  of  the  acanthus; 
heads  and  faces  of  ladies  of  fashion ; 
ribbons,  shields,  straps — all  mingled, 
but  all  with  a  view  to  their  disposal 
merely  in  the  possibilities  of  light 
and  shade. 

Ail  the  peculiarities  of  the  style, 
of  course,  exaggerated  themselves  as 
they  went  along ;  so  much  so  that  in 
the  next  reign  they  had  become  so 
elaborated  as  to  deserve  separate  no- 
tice, the  Louis  Quinze  having  many 
characteristics  whose  germ  is  to  be 
found  in  its  predecessor,  but  whose 
development  is  its  own  ;  although,  as 
the  title  Elizabethan  comprises,  unless  when  speaking  precisely,  much  that 
really  came  after  it,  so  it  is  not  unusual  to  speak  of  both  of  these  French 
styles  under  the  generic  name  of  the  Quatorze. 

Whether  meretricious  or  not,  nothing  could  be  more  brilliant  than  the 
effects  thus  produced.  They  bent  themselves  especially  to  interior  deco- 
ration, and  they  constituted  a  style  to  be  chosen  where  great  display  and 
splendor  are  desired — the  style  of  state  occasion  and  parade.  An  excel- 
lent thing  in  the  style  was  that  it  took  into  its  plan  not  merely  the  sofas 
and  cushions,  but  the  whole  room — doors,  chimneys,  ceiling,  walls.  The 
cabinets  fitted  the  design  as  much  as  the  panels,  the  mirrors  fitted  the 
panels ;  such  a  panel  needed  the  support  of  such  a  table,  with  its  sprawl- 
ing legs  beneath  it ;  such  a  coup  oVmil  would  have  been  unfinished  in  the 
design  without  such  a  couch  and  cabinet  and  drapery  to  complete  it. 
The  pictorial  quality  was  always  considered,  and,  such  as  it  was,  a  saloon 
in  the  Louis  Quatorze  had  no  appearance  of  a  bric-a-brac  shop  of  curious 
incongruities ;  but  when  it  was  surrendered  by  the  designer  to  the  owner, 
it  was  one  harmonious  whole.  Of  course  the  result  was  exceedingly  gay 
and  bright,  and  better  adapted  to  be  the  outward  expression  of  life  in  that 
magnificent  and  scandalous  era  than  anything  simpler  or  chaster.  "All 
that  the  taste  of  the  time  could  combine  of  flowers,  ciphers,  and  allegories 
was  scattered  over  a  golden  background"  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  the 


Louis  Quatorze  Chair. 


THE  LOUIS  QUATORZE. 


117 


apartment  of  the  Queen  Regent  at  that  period ;  "  a  solitary  window,  of 
which  the  frame  was  silver,  served  to  light  it." 

It  was  a  wonderful  reign,  that  of  the  monarch  under  whose  sceptre 
this  order  of  decoration  advanced.  It  compassed  the  entire  period  of  six 
rulers  of  the  English  people  and  a  portion  of  the  reign  of  two  others,  and 
a  style  invented  or  applied  under  such  fostering  circumstances  had  time 
to  understand  itself  and  to  progress  undisturbed  to  the  achievement  of  all 
that  it  intended.  The  one  peculiarity  of  the  times  was  that  of  theatrical 
ostentation  or  hollow  show.  The  long  curling  peruke  and  gorgeous  robes 
of  the  king  never  failed  to  assist  his  stature,  and  strengthen  the  divine 
right  of  a  potentate  who  patronized  genius  while  himself  ignorant  of 
scholarship,  and  had  the  reputation  of  a  hero  without  possessing  knowl- 
edge of  soldiery,  who  by  his  exactions  and  prodigality  sowed  the  seed  that 
not  a  hundred  years  later  destroyed  the  divine  right  of  all  potentates,  and 
who,  with  the  finances  of  his  kingdom  bankrupt,  yet  maintained  his  place 
as  the  first  sovereign  of  Europe  only  to  have  his  hearse  hounded  by  curses. 
Meanwhile  lighter  elements  played  about  the  immense  pretensions  of  his 
magnificence ;  and  if  it  was  the  age  of  Conde,  Colbert,  Bossuet,  and  Massil- 
lon,  it  was  also  the  age  of  Moliere,  of  Watteau,  and  of  the  musician  Lulli. 
It  would  hardly  have  been  in  nature  that  such  an  era  should  produce  any 
higher  order  of  decoration  than  that  of  these  flourishing  lines  in  gilt 
stucco.  Spectacle  was  to  be  regarded  first  of  all ;  solid  reality  was  a  mat- 
ter of  no  consequence. 

It  was  with  the  constant  view  to  brilliant  effect,  of  which  we  have 
spoken,  that,  as  a  rule,  the  flat  superficies  in  the  Louis  Quatorze  was  little 
used,  except  under  the  control  of  marquetry  and  bonle.  Every  surface 
was  channelled  and  interlined ;  it  protruded,  it  receded,  it  was  never  sta- 
tionary. Wherever  the  Grecian  anthemion  was  used,  it  represented  the 
round  and  ribbed  shell ;  and  all  these  perpetually  repeated  lines,  chan- 
nellings,  flutings,  and  mouldings  took  the  light  forcibly,  with  sharp  and 
shining  profile,  and  made  resplendent  effect  of  brilliant  lights  and  subtle 
shadows.  This  is  more  absolutely  true,  however,  of  the  decoration  of 
the  room  itself,  in  wall  and  ceiling  and  chimney,  than  of  the  furniture. 
There,  on  the  so  much  lesser  scale,  the  flat  surface  was  not  so  infrequent 
in  the  ornament ;  but  in  such  case  it  was  never  used  without  the  aid  of 
color,  in  marquetry,  in  enamels,  and  in  the  delicate  painting  of  Watteau 
and  others.  Watteau,  in  the  ornamentation  of  small  rooms,  framed  his 
fetes  and  garden  scenes  with  this  scroll-work  of  the  lines  exacted  by  the 
style,  mingled  with  fantasias  of  birds  and  flowers  and  flies,  with  free  use 
of  color. 

Of  course,  under  such  a  system  of  decoration,  where  all  that  was  aimed 


118 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


at  was  presenl  effect,  and  not  permanence,  furniture  took  an  unstable  char- 
acter. There  was  a  certain  lovely  grace  in  the  undulatory  curves  of  the 
long  legs  of  tables  and  chairs  and  many  of  the  elevated  cabinets,  as  one's 
first  glimpse  had  them  —  a  grace  of  which  one  wearied  as  of  too  much 
sw  eets,  a  grace  all  of  which  was  revealed  at  once,  leaving  no  bonne-houche 
for  by-and-by.  But  there  was  no  coherence,  or  appearance  of  it ;  construc- 
tion was  defied,  and  the  pieces  might  nearly  as  well  have  been  built  of 
reeds.  With  the  exception  of  bookcases,  which,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of 
books  even  then,  did  not  enjoy  much  increase  of  amplitude,  every  article 
of  furniture  received  some  variation  from  its  past  standard,  and  many  al- 
together novel  ones  were  produced  from  modifications  of  the  old.  Yet 
the  ornament  of  furniture  never  was  more  dazzling ;  rare  woods  entered 
into  the  structure,  while  jasper,  bone,  coral,  mother-of-pearl,  lapis,  enamels, 
and  bronzes  were  still  freely  used. 


Louis  Quatorze  Drawing-room. 


Draperies  were  generously  employed  in  the  Louis  Quatorze,  and  had 
become  wonderfully  fine  both  as  hangings  and  as  coverings  to  seats.  The 
production  of  these  tapestries  had,  many  years  before,  been  transferred  to 
France  by  the  Gobelins,  Dutch  makers  of  hangings,  and  established  in 
Paris  on  the  borders  of  a  little  brook  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Marceau,  whose 
waters  were  supposed  to  have  some  peculiar  property  valuable  in  the  scar- 
let dyes  of  which  Gobelin  had  discovered  the  secret.  After  the  manu- 
facture came  under  the  royal  protection,  Colbert,  the  great  financier, 


THE  LOUIS  QUATORZE. 


119 


placed  it  in  the  charge  of  Le  Brun,  the  artist;  and  nothing  can  rival  the 
delicacy  and  beauty  of  the  finish  given  to  these  tapestries,  reproducing 
masterpieces  of  ancient  painting  and  portraiture  that  counterfeited  life. 
These  magnificent  fabrics  adorned  walls  and  windows,  and  covered  furni- 
ture and  heightened  its  effect,  whenever  they  could  be  had ;  and,  in  the 
opposite  contingent,  they  were  replaced  by  embroideries  only  less  pre- 
cious, and  by  velvets  looped  back  with  ropes  and  tassels  of  gold.  An 
engraving  can  give  no  idea  of  anything  but  the  faults  of  the  Louis  Qua- 
torze,  which  needs  to  be  seen  in  all  its  space  and  splendor,  its  white  and 
gold  and  colors,  and  general  eye-taking  glitter. 

The  most  striking  novelty  of  the  style,  after  the  essential  novelty  of 
the  shape,  was  the  boule-work  with  its  shell  marquetry  on  vermilion  or 
on  gilded  ground ;  and  the  exquisitely  chased  brass-work  that,  originally 
used  to  spare  the  weaker  and  more  exposed  portions  of  the  inlay,  after- 
ward became  a  part  of  the  plan  of  the  ornament,  was  richly  chased,  and 
frequently  thrown  into  relief  with  the  finest  repousse-work.  This  incrus- 
tation and  inlay  made  no  simple  adornment  conforming  to  time-honored 
rules ;  on  the  contrary,  it  carried  fantasy  itself  before  it,  and  usurped 
everything  to  its  own  dominion.  One  had  the  article  for  the  sake  of  the 
boule.  The  boule  was  no  accident  of  the  table  or  cabinet;  the  table  or 
cabinet  was  a  mere  background  and  means  of  being  for  the  boule.  The 
inlay  of  these  brilliant  metals,  costly  marbles,  ivory,  and  nacre  upon  dark 
rich  material  of  ebony,  lapis  lazuli,  precious  serpentine,  tortoise-shell,  and 
the  like,  followed  not  only  the  elements  of  the  style,  but  with  those  ele- 
ments framed  and  surrounded  a  pictured  mosaic  of  landscape,  or  of  por- 
trait, or  of  battle-scene,  where  the  hues  were  as  rich  as,  and  the  contrasts 
were  more  striking  than,  those  of  any  allowable  painting.  Thus  it  would 
be  difficult  to  conjure  up  anything  more  radiant  and  imposing,  and  in  a 
certain  sense  beautiful,  than  one  of  the  lustrous,  lofty  rooms  of  the  Louis 
Quatorze,  where,  light  and  shade  being  the  controlling  thought,  the  soft 
rich  hues  of  carpet  and  curtain  and  the  burnished  gold  and  wondrous 
color  of  the  many-tinted  inlay  of  the  furniture  are  carried  up  and  lost  in 
the  white  and  gilt  splendor  of  wall,  cornice,  and  ceiling,  till  the  place  and 
scene  are  regal,  and  fit  only  for  the  gallantries  of  the  plumed  and  jewelled 
personages  of  courts. 


L20 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XVIII. 


THE  LOUIS  QUINZE. 


TIE  progress  of  the  style  which  took  possession  of  all  decoration  in 


the  reign  of  his  great-grandfather,  gave  to  the  furniture  of  the  reign 
of  Louis  Quinze  a  character  of  its  own  even  more  like  an  outcnyp  of  the 
life  of  those  that  used  it  than  had  been  that  which  preceded  it.  On  the 
introduction  of  the  style,  it  underwent  an  immediate  adaptation  to  the 
peculiar  genius  of  the  era,  as  shown  in  the  ostentation  and  glitter  of  the 
court,  and  the  almost  universal  love  of  ease  and  pleasure.  But  what 
were  merely  accessory  features  at  the  first,  in  the  process  of  development 
through  many  years  became  the  essential  qualities  of  the  variation  that 
at  length  obtained  under  the  name  and  style  of  Louis  Quinze ;  for  the 
Grand  Monarque  had  lived  to  see  death  twice  take  away  his  heir  before 
he  placed  the  sceptre  in  his  great-grandson's  little  hand,  and  thus  the  style 
of  his  reign,  as  already  mentioned,  had  had  opportunity  of  developing  all 
that  it  contained,  so  that  if  still  further  change  were  desired,  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  seize  the  most  fantastic  elements,  and  exaggerate  them 
till  what  grandeur  there  was  in  the  original  style  was  destroyed  by  accu- 
mulation of  senseless  details.  There  was  some  grandeur  in  the  old  Louis 
Quatorze ;  neither  the  Gothic  nor  the  Renaissance  rivalled  it  for  purposes 
of  parade,  fitted  for  the  shining  reception  of  a  perpetual  pageant.  It  was 
not  its  grandeur,  though,  that  its  successor  either  carried  on  or  rivalled, 
but  merely  its  mepquinage. 

The  Quatorze  had  already  made  use  of  the  occasional  absence  of  sym- 
metry in  grasping  its  great  effect  of  varied  and  abrupt  light  and  shade; 
the  Quinze  formulated  it,  so  to  say,  into  a  principle.  Symmetry  became 
with  it  not  only  a  thing  of  no  consequence,  but  an  untoward  circumstance 
not  to  be  encouraged.  Still  making  some  classical  pretension,  using  the 
anthemion,  for  example,  although  only  as  a  shell,  together  with  other  clas- 
sic members,  it  nevertheless  seemed  fairly  wearied  of  the  right  lines,  the 
severe  flexures  and  simplicity  of  the  antique,  and  indulged  itself  in  a  sys- 
tem of  random  fancies  loosely  thrown  together  without  an  artistic  idea, 
and  entirely  at  variance  with  classic  use.  To  look  over  the  drawings  of 
the  designs  of  this  period,  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  that  they  were  in- 


THE  LOUIS  QUINZE. 


121 


tended  for  furniture:  rank  weeds  growing  in  summer  heat  around  parcels 
of  rocks  and  shells  tossed  together  would  present  as  reasonable  an  appear- 
ance of  purpose.  And  it  is  from  these  rocks  and  shells,  rocailles  and 
coquilles,  that  the  style  receives  its  opprobrious  epithet  of  the  Rococo,  a 
mere  corruption  of  the  two  words — the  Rocaille  it  is  generally  called  in 
the  land  of  its  birth,  while  its  involved,  crimped,  shabby  lines  are  known 
as  coquillages.  Other  details  figure  in  the  ornamentation,  such  as  grottos 
— rock  forms  still,  to  be  sure — roses,  cornucopias,  upset  vases,  scrolls ;  but 
over  all  the  shell,  which,  so  far  as  research  has  been  able  to  trace  it,  ap- 
pears first  in  ornamental  art  upon  the  Arch  of  Titus,  is  here  triumphant — 
the  shell  which,  although  freely  used  in  the  Jacobean,  never  before  so 
nearly  made  all  decoration  look  like  a  work  in  Palissy-ware  or  an  illustra- 
tion of  conchology. 

Perhaps  we  are  wrong  in  saying  these  rocks  and  shells  and  roses  were 
thrown  together  without  an  artistic  idea,  for  a  purpose  was  really  evident 
through  all  the  vagaries  of  the  Louis  Quinze — the  predominating  idea  of 
the  Louis  Quatorze,  elaborated  to  its  last  limit,  of  affording  splendid  con- 
trasts of  light  and  shade ;  and  in  order  to  dash  the  light  with  still  broader 
effect,  an  infinity  of  meaningless  detail  was  unwisely  carried  out  with  a 
much  more  than  Chinese  disobedience  to  the  laws  of  symmetry ;  for  the 
Chinese  abuse  symmetry  by  the  means  of  symmetry  itself,  even  in  their 
avoidance  of  it  in  particulars  succeeding  in  balancing  the  whole. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  entire  range  of  art  acting  as  an  example  or 
incitement  to  this  Rococo.  Before  it  existed  there  was  nothing  like  it, 
and  there  has  been  nothing  like  it  since,  unless  it  may  be  the  imitations  of 
it  where  even  its  poor  prevailing  intention  has  been  forgotten,  and  only 
its  exaggerated  peculiarities  remain.  In  its  elevations  every  shape  and 
line  throughout  the  medley  is  seen  to  be  turned  and  twisted  and  involved 
with  the  most  curious  misunderstanding  of  beauty.  The  Louis  Quatorze 
ornamentation,  indeed,  was  born  of  the  Cinque-cento  infinitely  debased, 
but  the  Louis  Quinze  seized  the  striking  differentiations  of  the  former 
style  from  its  base,  and  thrust  them  not  only  into  remote  caricature,  but 
utter  dissimilarity  and  removal.  It  lengthened  the  acanthus  scroll  into 
endless  reedy  wandering  foliations,  and  it  took  the  blase  fancy  of  the  day 
with  the  multitudinous  detail  and  the  brilliancy  of  ridged  and  broken  out- 
lines in  constant  succession  ;  and  not  the  least  amusing  part  of  the  whole 
was  the  travesty  of  nature  it  made  when  obliged  to  render  natural  objects. 
It  looked  upon  nature  as  a  rude  and  barbarous  affair  that  needed  some 
dressing  of  French  taste  before  it  could  be  considered  fairly  en  grande 
toilette,  and  it  arrayed  her  according  to  its  own  fancy  before  offering  her 
to  your  acquaintance. 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Perhaps  it  was  precisely  the  style  that  should  have  been  expected  of 
that  age,  which,  already  inheriting  corruption,  in  little  more  than  half  a 
century  prepared  chaos.  It  was  the  court,  and  those  that  aped  the  court, 
on  whose  requirements  furniture  was  modelled.  It  was  they  who  bought 
and  used  furniture  and  commanded  decoration  ;  they  commanded  it  of  a 
sort  befitting  the  giddy,  volatile  spirit  that  danced  on  the  crumbling  crust 
of  a  volcano;  and  they  wanted  it,  perhaps,  to  match  the  robes  on  which 
silken,  gold,  and  silver  embroidery  had  been  replaced  by  embroidery  in 
gems  —  rubies,  sapphires,  emeralds,  and  brilliants  supplying  the  desired 
color  with  the  lustre  of  light  itself.  While  the  shameless  king  led  his 
vile  life  of  a  sensuality  more  abominable  than  that  of  an  Eastern  volupt- 
uary ;  while  the  court  was  abandoned  to  levity  and  insatiable  pleasure, 
glittering  with  splendid  vice  and  wanton  waste;  while  the  arts  were  pat- 
ronized by  a  Pompadour,  furniture,  which  is  the  clothing  of  the  daily 
life,  with  its  twenty-four  hours,  its  needs  and  deeds,  could  do  nothing  but 
represent  that  vicious  life.  In  other  matters  at  that  time  intellect  was  not 
slumbering.  The  apathy  of  its  rulers,  plunged  in  their  own  pleasures  and 
pursuits,  had  given  the  nation  time  to  think,  and  that  great  impulse  was 
starting  which  caused  French  ideas  to  rule  the  world.  But  philosophy 
and  science  did  not  yet  trouble  themselves  with  furniture:  it  was  who 
should  attain  the  academic  fauteuil,  not  how  that  fauteuil  should  be  made 
and  ornamented. 

Of  course  where  profligacy  and  luxury  demanded  so  much,  and  where 
the  gold  extorted  from  the  people  flowed  in  a  thousand  prodigal  streams, 
manufactures  flourished  as  seldom  before.  The  king  himself  took  a  great 
interest  in  the  Gobelin  tapestries  which  had  become  of  such  marvellous 
value,  made  at  the  expense  of  the  Government,  and  not  to  be  purchased, 
being  preserved  for  royal  use  and  royal  gifts,  and  in  the  exquisite  Sevres 
porcelain,  which  now  adorned  everything  on  which  it  could  be  used. 

But  the  manufacture  of  furniture  itself  was  of  no  such  worth  :  its  very 
shape  hindered  its  solidity.  The  spindling,  unconnected,  untrussed  legs  of 
the  chairs,  and  of  the  tables  that  were  utterly  unflt  to  uphold  the  heavy 
slabs  of  marble  that  crowned  them,  must  needs  presently  strew  the  floor 
as  once  the  rushes  had  done.  Solidity  was  not  in  the  least  looked  after 
or  desired,  and  veneering  had  come  into  such  general  use  as  to  complete 
the  ruin  of  all  noble  work,  in  itself  entirely  in  discord  with  a  noble  style. 
Veneering,  indeed,  was  in  its  glory  in  the  reign  of  the  Rococo,  and  the 
universal  face  of  furniture  was  falsehood.  Rosewood  had  come  in,  and 
mahogany,  and  superadded  to  these  the  lacquers,  a  curious  taste  in  lacquer- 
work  having  arisen,  so  that  Paris  was  filled  with  rival  workmen  imitating 
the  lacquers  of  the  Orient.    Furnitures  made  in  France  were  sent  out  to 


THE  LOUIS  QUINZE. 


123 


Coromandel  to  be  lacquered,  and  we  see  the  result  in  many  an  article  of 
Oriental  furniture  to-day,  where  the  shape  is  still  imitated,  especially 
in  the  long  and  slender  crooked  legs.  These  pieces  of  furniture  were 
called  Coromandels,  and  were  usually  passed  off  as  entirely  of  foreign 


Glass  Room,  with  Flowers  and  Fountains. 


production.  Large  articles  of  furniture  were  not  altered  in  their  shape 
from  that  which  they  had  held  for  many  a  year,  although  the  ornament 
applied  to  them  was  of  the  new  character.  The  armory  still  maintained 
its  dignity,  and  the  bookcase  borrowed  from  the  armory.  They  were  in 
little  use,  the  life  of  intrigue  then  adopting  small  rooms  and  closets,  and 
furnishing  them  with  pieces  to  correspond.  Light  fantastic  delicacy  was 
the  order  of  the  day ;  and  the  greater  part  of  the  pieces  can  be  told  from 
those  of  the  Louis  Quatorze,  not  only  by  the  coquillage  and  the  bravura 
conspicuous  in  the  outline,  but  by  the  longer  and  slenderer  supports  that 
have  forsaken  the  full  curve  and  taken  a  departure  at  a  lesser  angle, 
and  by  curves  in  the  face  of  the  furniture,  sometimes  the  whole  front 
rounded  out,  both  in  the  height  and  in  the  length,  with  alternate  hollows — 
that  outline  first  appearing  in  this  style — and  sometimes  the  doors  and 
drawers  in  flat  profile,  and  the  corners  and  sides  rounded  out  and  orna- 
mented. 

Thus  with  the  Louis  Quinze  there  was  developed  a  great  taste  for  what 
are  termed  babioles — little  tables,  toy  cabinets,  tripods,  gueridons,  etageres, 
chiffonniers,  pedestals — made  after  countless  varieties,  but  all  with  undu- 


[24 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


latory  feet,  all  falsely  constructed,  all  glowing  with  gilding,  and  all  decked 
out  with  the  roses  and  wreaths  and  festoons,  and  that  ever-changing  but 
always  the  same  shell  which  resembles  the  tiny  spread  feather  on  the  head 
of  a  half -fledged  ground-sparrow. 

Nevertheless,  with  all  the  defect  of  the  Louis  Quinze,  hizarre  to  the 
last  degree,  it  yet  was  not  altogether  without  elegance.  It  made  a  com- 
plete effect,  according  to  its  own  purposes — the  effect  of  dazzle  and  of  lux- 
ury. A  Louis  Quinze  drawing-room,  carried  out  to  the  letter,  looks,  to  be 
sure,  the  least  in  the  world  like  the  stage  set  for  a  conjurer,  but  a  conjurer 
that  can  make  the  sun  shine  on  a  gray  day,  that  can  turn  fatigue  into 
pleasure,  and  fill  discontent  with  cheer  ;  that  is  because,  with  whatever 
faults  it  has,  it  is  the  only  style  of  all  that  has  ever  paid  complete  attention 
to  physical  comfort.  The  straight  back,  the  upright  lines,  the  honest  and 
sturdy  supports  of  the  Gothic,  the  perfect  grace  and  beauty  of  the  Renais- 
sance, are  nothing  to  be  compared,  for  comfort  to  the  aching,  the  worn,  and 
the  weary,  with  the  deep-saated  deliciousness'  of  the  Louis  Quinze.  What 
comfort  has  crept  into  the  Gothic  and  the  Renaissance — the  properly  tilted 
back,  the  seat  at  a  healthy  angle  with  it,  the  elastic  support  of  springs — is 
there  only  because  the  Louis  Quinze  taught  that  such  a  thing  could  be. 
The  Venetian  chair  that  is  made  of  three  planks,  the  first  for  the  tall  back 
going  straight  from  the  floor,  the  second  mortised  into  that,  and  supported 
in  front  by  the  third,  and  the  whole  then  carved  out  into  an  intricacy  of 
noble  beauty,  may  be  a  most  inviting,  most  satisfying,  and  delightful  ob- 
ject to  the  eye  ;  but  the  tired  frame  that  feels  the  grasshopper  a  burden 
will  pass  it  by  and  sink  into  the  soft  pillowy  arms  of  the  Louis  Quinze. 

It  would  seem  to  be  the  one  good  act,  albeit  unconsciously  so,  of  that 
detestable  monarch's  life  that  he  lent  his  name  to  a  form  of  seat  that  has 
been  a  blessing  to  "the  lame  and  the  lazy  and  those  that  won't  work." 
The  beds  of  the  style  are  miracles  of  restful  luxury  too.  They  often  had 
the  ancient  back  like  a  sofa's,  as  well  as  head  and  foot,  and  the  three  sides 
then  under  their  lofty  tented  hangings  were  stuffed  and  tufted  and  richly 
upholstered.  In  everything  where  comfort  wTas  to  be  had,  that  was  con- 
sidered even  before  splendor ;  and  round  forms,  so  supporting  to  the  body 
that  sitting  for  a  length  of  time  afforded  no  fatigue,  yielding  and  cush- 
ioned springs,  characterize  the  style  quite  as  much  as  any  of  its  rococo - 
work  does.  And  as  the  Venetian  chair  tells  that  it  was  used  by  no  inert 
and  enervated  race,  but  by  one  ready  to  maintain  its  mighty  name,  so 
these  round,  cushioned,  downy  seats,  and  this  dazzle  of  gilded  shells  and 
rocks,  tell  all  the  story  of  the  lassitude  and  luxury  of  the  court  of  that 
vicious  ruler  to  whose  self-indulgence  and  sins  they  owe  their  birth. 


LOUIS  SEIZE. 


125 


XIX. 

LOUIS  SEIZE. 

THE  furniture  known  under  the  name  of  the  Louis  Seize  had  at  once 
an  amazing  difference  from  its  immediate  }3redecessors  and  a  curious 
similarity  to  them.  The  similarity  was  in  the  festoons,  the  garlands,  the 
gilding,  the  not  entirely  forgotten  shell  of  the  decoration ;  the  difference 
was  in  the  shape  of  the  article,  and  the  care  and  serious  study  expended  on 
it.  It  was  an  eclectic  affair ;  and  although  very  far  from  an  ideal  style,  it 
chose  the  best  of  several.  Refinement  was  evident  in  its  lines,  and  some 
comprehension  that  there  was  a  world  outside  of  Paris — the  very  opposite 
of  anything  to  be  gathered  from  the  results  of  that  habit  of  the  Quatorze 
of  neglecting  detail  in  order  to  secure  broad  effect,  through  the  unwise  in- 
heritance of  which  the  Rococo  had  wound  up  not  only  with  neglect,  but 
with  a  complete  ignorance  and  lawlessness  of  fancy  that  implied  indiffer- 
ence to  all  beyond,  if  not  contempt.  And  there  was  in  the  very  aspect 
of  the  Louis  Seize,  in  its  right  lines  and  its  freedom  from  idle  curvatures, 
some  subtle  and  perhaps  unconscious  hint  that  here  virtue  was  respect- 
ed where  lately  vice  had  been  enthroned.  Nor  is  this  entirely  fanci- 
ful, since  it  is  certainly  impossible  to  look  at  the  furnitures  of  the  three 
reigns — the  Quatorze,  the  Quinze,  and  the  Louis  Seize — and  not  observe 
where  license  became  profligacy  and  was  again  restrained  into  decency — 
household  and  palatial  decoration  colored  necessarily  by  the  moral  quali- 
ties of  its  designing  and  accepting  minds. 

Since  changes  have  been  made  so  vastly  easier  than  they  were  in  the 
old  days  of  which  M.  Viollet-le-Duc  tells  us,  since  people  have  grown  so 
restless,  and  since  wealth  has  in  every  way  so  multiplied  itself,  there  has 
been  almost  as  frequently  a  fashion  in  furniture  as  in  millinery — some 
reason,  if  insufficient,  some  apparent  philosophy,  to  be  found  in  the  change 
in  both  cases.  And  it  seems  to  us  that  in  its  encroachments  and  selections 
— it  possessed,  we  think,  no  inventions — the  Louis  Seize  deserves,  perhaps, 
more  the  name  of  a  fashion  than  a  style,  having  neither  the  freedom  and 
novelty  of  the  Quatorze  nor  the  purity  of  the  Grecian,  nor,  although  using 
a  mingling  of  both,  marked  by  that  pronounced  individuality  proper  to 
the  conception  of  an  absolute  style. 


120 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Whether  fashion  or  style,  we  find  in  it,  notwithstanding  its  attempt 
at  nobler  things,  an  evident  clinging  to  the  traditions  of  the  century  and 
a  half  behind  it  at  court ;  just  as  in  the  king  himself,  who  would  never  ap- 
point a  bishop  or  confer  a  benefice  outside  of  the  pale  of  noble  birth,  was 
apparent  a  leaning  toward  the  privileged  orders,  although  it  had  long  been 
a  recognized  fact  that  the  interest  of  the  kings  was  with  the  people  and 
against  the  nobles.  We  see,  moreover,  in  its  coup  oVmil  an  uprising  of 
popular  thought  and  republican  ideas,  with  the  Classic  turn  that  was  given 
to  all  things  much  more  distinctly  than  ever  before,  actuated  probably  by 
the  example  of  the  Grecian  republics,  the  more  wide-spread  knowledge  of 
whose  history,  joined  with  the  awakening  events  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, was  fast  undermining  the  structure  of  the  heaven-descended  right  of 

kings.  It  was  also  impossible  that 
such  a  new  world  should  have  been 
opened,  such  a  literal  resurrection  of 
the  dead  past  in  its  beauty,  as  in  the 
uncovering  of  Pompeii,  that  was  all 
the  time  progressing,  without  produc- 
ing a  deep  impression  ;  and  Pompeian 


Louis  Seize  Chair. 


ideas  are  so  constantly  reflected  in  the 
Louis  Seize  that  it  seems,  in  many  re- 
spects, almost  a  repetition  of  the  early 
Renaissance.  In  addition  to  all  that, 
without  doubt  the  very  great  favor 
that  Classic  aspirations  had  been  meet- 
ing in  England  also,  where,  in  a  de- 
based state,  the  Classic  had  prevailed 
many  years,  and  during  the  last  half  century,  especially  since  the  publica- 
tion of  Adam's  "  Spalatro  " — a  description  and  restoration,  with  plates,  of 
Diocletian's  villa — with  a  more  thorough  acquaintance  of  the  right  spirit 
and  details,  had  reacted  on  the  French  taste,  weary  of  gaudy  trifling,  and 
just  in  the  mood  to  accept  it. 

Ideas  that  lead  to  radical  change  and  renewal,  the  student  observes, 
first  come  in  literature,  in  dress,  in  architecture,  last  of  all  in  furniture ; 
and  they  reach  furniture  modified  by  many  other  influences  than  those  of 
direct  art — convenience,  the  fashion  of  garments,  the  habits  of  life,  mak- 
ing themselves  felt  quite  as  much  as  the  inspiring  power  of  Greek  lintel 
or  Gothic  arch ;  and  the  careful  reconstructer  can,  as  has  been  said,  build 
again  the  whole  fabric  of  a  forgotten  society  from  the  features  of  its  fur- 
niture. If  he  attempt,  at  some  future  era,  to  reconstruct  history  from  the 
Louis  Seize,  he  will  find  a  love  of  sumptuous  splendor  and  revelry  on  the 


LOUIS  SEIZE. 


127 


one  side,  just  beginning  to  be  held  in  check  on  the  other  by  the  new  ideas 
born  of  disgust  for  courtly  vice — and  for  such  wanton  and  useless  expendi- 
ture as  that  where  the  mere  hangings  of  the  bed  presented  by  Madame 
De  Montespan  to  the  bride  of  the  royal  prince,  her  son  and  the  king's, 
cost,  with  their  marvellous  embroidery  in  gold  and  pearls,  more  than  a 
million  livres  of  the  present  day — together  with  a  recognition  also  of  the 
rights  of  man  that  amused  and  expressed  itself  by  means  of  the  forms  in 
use  in  the  times  of  early  austerity  and  desired  freedom.  He  will  see  that 
this  was  furniture  that  could  array,  as  it  did,  the  salon  where  Madame 
Roland  and  her  friends  discussed  the  principles  of  liberty,  and  also  fur- 
nish forth  the  revels  of  Marie  Antoinette  and  her  courtiers  at  the  Petit 
Trianon. 

The  earlier  chair  with  sprawling  legs,  called  the  cancan,  from  which 
the  vile  dance  of  the  same  name  derived  its  appellation,  belonging  to  the 
Louis  Quatorze,  was  a  chair  not  to  be  accepted  in  the  fashion  of  Louis 
Seize,  but  to  be  de])arted  from  as  widely  as  circumstances  would  admit. 
There  is  not  a  sprawling  leg  to  be  found  in  any  article  of  the  Louis  Seize ; 
they  are  nearly  all  upright,  turned  sometimes  in  various  ways,  imitating 
vases  and  cups,  the  flat  tazza  at  the  top,  and  in  the  main  resembling  little 
columns,  or  colonnettes,  headed  and  supported  by  tiny  astragals,  usually 
fluted,  and  usually  with  the  fluting  accentuated  and  broken  again  by  verti- 
cal lines  of  gilding.  Gilding  did  its  best,  indeed,  in  the  Louis  Seize,  not 
with  the  vulgar  profusion  that  it  sujDersedecl,  although  more  ostentatiously 
still  than  pleases  the  correct  taste,  but  with  rather  remarkable  freedom, 
considering  the  fact  of  the  return  to  Greek  profiles,  and  with  that  the  nat- 
urally accompanying  exhibition  of  a  severer  fancy  than  had  ruled  before 
for  centuries.  Severe  in  outline  only,  it  wrould  seem,  for,  when  wTe  come  to 
decoration,  there  were  the  multitudinous  wreaths  and  festoons  and  knots 
and  ribbons,  with  rosettes  of  roses  set  in  a  square,  nests  of  the  acanthus, 
and  scrolls  half  in  doubt  whether  they  are  not  broken  fragments  of  a  shell, 
with  countless  other  variations  in  the  mouldings  and  mounts.  But  heavy 
articles  were  well  lifted  off  the  floor,  grace  wras  regarded  from  a  chaster 
point  of  view  than  when  the  polite  world  sat  and  lay  on  the  old  agglomer- 
ation of  curves,  while  comfort,  although  carried  to  no  such  point  of  Ori- 
ental luxury  and  lounging  as  once,  was  yet  by  no  means  overlooked. 
Meantime  the  various  babioles,  that  we  have  spoken  of  as  coming  in  dur- 
ing the  last  generations,  were  retained,  and  the  new  woods  were  freely 
used  in  their  construction,  but  all  redeemed  from  the  curve,  and  Grecian- 
ized.  The  material  difference  between  the  Louis  Seize  chair  and  that  of 
the  Quinze  was  its  more  upright  form,  the  classic  contour  of  its  lines,  and 
of  the  ornament  that  was  doing  its  best  to  be  freed  from  the  Eococo; 


128 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


while  carving,  perhaps  inspired  by  recent  English  work,  when  used  in 
preference  to  the  perfect  marquetry  or  in  conjunction  with  it,  was  never 
in  any  French  work  since  the  early  Renaissance  of  so  rich  a  description. 
The  sofa  had  the  same  character  as  the  chair,  sufficiently  comfortable,  not 
unpicturesque,  on  the  whole,  in  spite  of  its  too  splendid  glitter ;  mirrors 


Louis  Seize  Bedchamber. 


had  become  very  large,  and,  used  extravagantly  still,  made  resplendent 
features  in  the  fashion  ;  the  tables  were  on  long,  slender,  straight  or  ta- 
pering legs,  sometimes  simply  standing  four-square,  sometimes  with  oval- 
shaped  connecting  bars  between  the  feet,  most  of  them  of  a  pleasing  ap- 
pearance ;  and  the  cabinets,  built  in  various  shapes,  were  exceedingly  beau- 
tiful pieces.  Some  of  these  cabinets  resemble  the  little  Italian  bureau, 
which,  light  in  construction,  without  fragility,  was  certainly  as  pretty  an 
article  as  a  drawing-room  can  know,  its  slender  supports  strengthened  by 
the  ornamental  bars  between,  frequently  long  double  ovals  meeting  in  a 
vase  or  any  other  ornament,  and  the  top  raised  and  filled  with  numerous 
little  drawers  surrounded  by  elaborate  ornament,  the  handles  made  of  carv- 
ings of  precious  marbles  in  flowers  and  fruits,  and  a  central  space  enclos- 
ing, between  gilt  colonnettes  with  richly  wrought  tiny  plinths  and  capi- 
tals, more  intimate  and  secret  drawers  behind  the  space  of  its  ornament. 
We  have  been  shown  a  precious  old  bureau  of  this  description  in  this 
country,  the  price  of  which  was  not  extortionate  at  something  over  a  thou- 
sand dollars. 


LOUIS  SEIZE. 


129 


While,  as  we  have  seen,  the  effect  of  Louis  Seize  furnishing  was  some- 
what more  severe,  it  was  equally  as  splendid  as  that  of  its  predecessors. 
The  panelling  of  rooms  had  no  more  of  the  Rococo  flourishes ;  they  fol- 
lowed straight  lines,  and  usually,  of  whatever  material  made,  were  painted 
white ;  the  pilasters  between  were  carved  with  minute  richness  and  deli- 
cacy, and  were  gilt  so  finely  and  substantially  that  the  gilding  is  in  per- 
fect preservation  to-day.  The  quills  of  the  fluted  columns  were  beaded, 
and  arabesque- work  after  the  old  Raphaelesque  designs  accompanied  the 
decoration  of  many  interiors,  these  portions  carved  and  those  painted  and 
gilt,  the  gilding  alloyed  so  as  to  produce  various  tints — the  coppery  red, 
the  silvery  green.  The  furnitures  themselves,  when  of  merit,  were  de- 
signed by  Riesener,  Roentgen,  Cauvet,  and  many  other  artists  of  celebrity, 
who  also  often  took  in  charge  the  whole  accompanying  scheme  of  decora- 
tion ;  and  various  articles  were  made  of  tulip,  purple,  laburnum,  and  rose- 
wood, or  of  lighter  woods  colored  in  the  various  golden-brown  shades  by 
means  of  a  hot  iron.  The  chief  ornament  was  marquetry  of  elaborate 
pattern  and  workmanship  in  floral  garlands,  surrounded  by  borders  of  fine 
diaper- work.  The  chairs  and  couches  were  upholstered  in  Gobelin,  or  in 
the  costly  French  and  Italian  silks.  All  these  articles  were  further  en- 
riched by  the  remarkable  metal  mounts  of  Goutliiere,  Barthelemy,  and 
others,  modelled  with  exquisite  precision,  chased  and  gilt  again  with  a  solid 
finish  that  defies  time  and  tarnish;  while  Sevres  china,  profusely  used, 
added  its  charm  to  the  whole. 

The  style  which  succeeded  the  Louis  Seize  was  so  exceedingly  faulty 
that  it  would  needs  have  been  followed  by  a  reaction,  if  not  by  a  return 
to  that  which  it  had  supplanted,  even  if  the  restoration  of  the  legitimate 
sovereigns  had  not  enforced  a  banishment  of  everything  that  had  obtained 
favor  under  the  usurping  powers  —  the  great  waves  of  those  mighty 
events  felt  in  the  drawing-room  as  well  as  mounting  to  the  scaffold. 
But  of  course  when  the  kings  had  their  own  again,  they  did  their  best, 
or  rather  the  purveyors  to  the  court  did,  to  make  their  absence  forgot- 
ten, and  took  things  up  as  nearly  as  possible  where  they  were  when  the 
fatal  axe  of  '93  had  fallen.  In  this  way  it  has  come  about  that  the  Louis 
Seize  furniture  is  again  the  favorite  of  that  fashion  which,  after  inter- 
vals of  departure  from  its  standard,  always  local,  never  universal,  has  re- 
turned to  it,  with  the  greater  elaboration  of  its  Pompeian  features,  and 
palaces  are  gay  with  the  things  whose  associations  are  full  of  the  sad  his- 
tory and  bitter  renunciation  of  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and  unfortu- 
nate women  of  all  time.  Far  more  refined  and  only  less  splendid  than 
previous  French  styles,  it  is  as  well  suited  to  the  frivolities  of  the  life  too 
frequently  led  nowadays  by  the  extraordinarily  wealthy  as  more  stable 

9 


130 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


and  solid  and  dignified  furniture  could  be.  While  full  of  its  reminis- 
cences, it  supplies  a  glitter  that  does  not  exist  in  the  Renaissance,  and  it  is 
lighter  and  airier  than  the  Gothic,  which,  besides,  exacts  more  archaeologi- 
cal knowledge  than  has  been,  until  lately,  in  the  possession  of  many  indi- 
viduals, and  which,  even  if  not  an  anachronism  in  connection  with  the 
manners  and  habits  of  those  about  it,  would  be  at  any  rate  most  singularly 
at  variance  with  the  French  costumes  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  pe- 
riod. It  is  the  nearest  approach  to  the  old  Quattrocento  that  modern 
styles  have  made ;  and  if  certain  purists  deride  the  Renaissance,  we  can 
remember  that  people  of  as  much  weight  in  the  world's  history — such  as 
Raphael,  Romano,  and  Cellini — assisted  at  its  formation. 

The  Louis  Seize  is  now  made  with  a  perfection  that  gives  it  a  right  of 
existence  until  the  spirit  of  the  age  shall  develop  something  superior — 
something  in  which  gilding  shall  be  subordinate,  and  veneering  a  lost  art. 
At  present  the  Louis  Seize  furniture  is  made  in  America  with  a  nicety 
and  purity  quite  equal  to  that  which  characterizes  the  best  examples,  and 
its  wonderfully  beautiful  carving  is  unrivalled  by  any  that  comes  from 
abroad. 


THE  rOMPEIAN. 


131 


XX. 

THE  POMP  EI  AN. 

1\HE  Pompeian  was  the  original  of  most  of  the  features  of  the  Louis 
■  Seize,  and  in  choosing  the  elder  style  there  is  attained  a  more  pro- 
nounced character  of  Greek  beauty,  free  from  the  trivial  details  added  by 
French  fancy,  if  not  the  best  and  purest  classicality  in  itself. 

The  Pompeian  is  a  style  of  great  magnificence,  and  it  can  be  carried 
out  with  strict  propriety  only  by  the  use  of  a  vast  amuunt  of  money.  Lim- 
ited incomes  can  indulge  in  the  Gothic,  in  the  Neo- Jacobean,  even  in  the 
Louis  Seize  to  some  extent ;  but  it  takes  a  princely  fortune  to  venture  on 
the  Pompeian,  and  to  do  it  in  character.  A  style  of  extravagance  as  it  is, 
ignorance  and  vulgarity  cannot  administer  it ;  costly  artistic  intelligence 
must  have  it  in  hand ;  nor  can  anything  cheap  be  tolerated  in  its  produc- 
tion, for  it  is  the  last  expression  of  luxurious  wealth,  and  whatever  is  done 
in  it  must  be  done  finely. 

The  art  of  the  Pompeian  was,  as  we  all  know,  the  Greek  art  after  the 
Asiatic  had  debased  it ;  not  that  of  the  ancient  dweller  by  the  iEgean  Sea, 
but  the  Greek  of  Magna  Grsecia,  who  brought  his  arts  and  pleasures  into 
Italy,  and  sapped  the  Roman  power  by  means  of  them.  Pliny  complained 
of  its  period,  saying  that  "  a  man  now  cares  nothing  for  art,  provided  he 
has  his  walls  well  covered  with  purple  or  dragon's-blood  from  India." 
•  Yet,  enfeebled  by  its  rank  blossoming  as  it  may  have  been,  it  is  doubtful 
if  many  of  us  can  improve  it ;  and  if  a  millionnaire  is  going  to  live  a  syba- 
ritic, self-indulgent  life  of  pleasure,  he  could  not  express  his  determination 
better  than  by  furnishing  his  villa  in  the  Pompeian.  But  such  as  the  art 
was  in  its  day,  "  it  made  its  way  everywhere,"  says  a  brilliant  writer ;  "  it 
illuminated,  it  gladdened,  it  perfumed  everything.  It  did  not  stand  either 
outside  of  or  above  ordinary  life ;  it  was  the  soul  and  the  delight  of  life ; 
in  a  word,  it  penetrated  it,  and  was  penetrated  by  it — it  lived!" 

It  was  a  wonderfully  rich  and  attractive  scheme  of  household  decora- 
tion— the  scheme  of  one  who  with  his  art  indulged  his  senses,  and  not  his 
soul — if  he  had  one.  Walls,  ceiling,  floor,  and  furniture,  all  had  part  in  it. 
Panels  were  ornamented  with  varied  frames,  then  with  cornices,  afterward 
with  plinths,  till  at  last  the  facade  of  a  temple  or  palace  was  presented 


132 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


on  the  walls  by  means  of  them  and  their  pilasters,  the  whole  painted  in 
strong  colors,  so  that  the  luxurious  citizen  not  only  lived  in  a  palace,  but 
saw  extensions  of  palaces  on  his  every  side.  "  These  mural  decorations 
were,"  says  the  writer  quoted  above,  "a  feast  for  the  eyes,  and  are  so  still. 
They  divided  the  walls  into  five  or  six  panels,  developing  themselves  be- 
tween a  socle"  (a  socle  answers  for  a  pedestal,  but  is  without  base  or  cor- 
nice) "  and  a  frieze ;  the  socle  being  deeper,  the  frieze  clearer  in  tint,  the 
interspace  of  a  more  vivid  red  and  yellow,  for  instance,  while  the  frieze 
was  white  and  the  socle  black.  In  plain  houses  these  single  panels  were 
divided  by  simple  lines.  Then,  gradually,  as  the  house  selected  became 
more  opulent,  these  lines  were  replaced  by  ornamental  frames,  garlands, 
pilasters,  and  ere  long  fantastic  pavilions,  in  which  the  fancy  of  the  deco- 
rative artist  disported  at  will.  Moreover,  the  socles  became  covered  with 
foliage,  the  friezes  with  arabesques,  and  the  panels  with  paintings,  the  lat- 
ter quite  simple  at  first,  such  as  a  flower,  a  fruit,  a  landscape ;  pretty  soon 
a  figure ;  then  a  group ;  then  at  last  great  historical  or  religious  subjects 
that  sometimes  covered  a  whole  piece  of  wall,  and  to  which  the  socle  and 
the  frieze  served  as  a  sort  of  showy  and  majestic  frame-work.  Thus  the 
fancy  of  the  decorator  could  rise  even  to  the  height  of  epic  art." 

The  usual  Pompeian  panel,  though,  and  the  only  one  that,  as  a  rule, 
we  now  attempt  to  reproduce,  presented  a  dark  field,  dull  red,  deep  blue, 
black,  olivine ;  and  on  this  field  danced  along  the  airy  figures  that  are  its 
chief  adornment,  full  of  original  fancy,  painted  in  bright  and  delicate 
beauty,  and  thrown  up  by  means  of  this  dark  ground.  "  Everybody  has 
seen  those  swarms  of  little  genii,"  continues  M.  Monnier,  "  that,  fluttering 
down  upon  the  walls  of  their  houses,  wove  crowns  or  garlands,  angled 
with  the  rod  and  line,  chased  birds,  sawed  planks,  planed  tables,  raced  in 
chariots,  or  danced  on  the  tight -rope,  holding  up  thyrsi  for  balancing- 
poles  ;  one  bent  over,  another  kneeling,  a  third  making  a  jet  of  wine  spurt 
forth  from  a  horn  into  a  vase,  a  fourth  playing  on  the  lyre,  and  a  fifth  on 
the  double  flute,  without  leaving  the  tight-rope  that  bends  beneath  their 
nimble  feet.  But  more  beautiful  than  these  divine  rope-dancers  were  the 
female  dancers  who  floated  about,  perfect  prodigies  of  self-possession  and 
buoyancy,  rising  of  themselves  from  the  ground,  and  sustained  without  an 
effort  in  the  voluptuous  air  that  cradled  them.  You  may  see  these  all  at 
the  museum  in  Naples — the  nymph  who  clashes  the  cymbals,  and  one  who 
drums  the  tambourine ;  another  who  holds  aloft  a  branch  of  cedar  and  a 
golden  sceptre;  one  who  is  handing  a  plate  of  figs;  and  her,  too,  who  has 
a  basket  on  her  head  and  a  thyrsus  in  her  hand.  Another,  in  dancing, 
uncovers  her  neck  and  her  shoulders ;  and  a  third,  with  her  head  thrown 
back  and  her  eyes  uplifted  to  heaven,  inflates  her  veil  as  though  to  fly 


THE  POMPEIAN. 


133 


away.  Here  is  one  dropping  bunches  of  flowers  in  a  fold  of  her  robe,  and 
there  another  who  holds  a  golden  plate  in  this  hand,  while  with  that  she 
covers  her  brows  with  an  undulating  pallium,  like  a  bird  putting  its  head 
under  its  wing.  There  are  some  almost  nude,  and  some  that  drape  them- 
selves in  tissues  quite  transparent  and  woven  of  the  air.  Some,  again, 
wrap  themselves  in  thick  mantles  which  cover  them  completely,  but  which 
are  about  to  fall ;  two  of  them,  holding  each  other  by  the  hand,  are  going 
to  float  upward  together.  As  many  dancing  nymphs  as  there  are,  so  many 
are  the  different  dances,  attitudes,  movements,  undulations,  characteristics, 
and  dissimilar  ways  of  removing  and  putting  on  veils  ;  infinite  variations, 
in  fine,  upon  two  notes  that  vibrate  with  voluptuous  luxuriance,  and  in  a 
thousand  ways." 

The  arabesques  of  the  ornamental  frames  enclosing  these  figures  were 
equally  rich  with  them  in  imaginative  form  and  in  tint ;  in  the  choicest 
instances  the  curves  were 
all  that  Greek  curves 
should  be.  Of  the  mosa- 
ics of  the  pavements  — 
where,  at  the  door,  if  an 
actual  dog  was  not  seen, 
he  was  apt  to  be  repre- 
sented, although  some- 
times in  his  place  was  to 
be  read  only  the  famil- 
iar legend,  Cave  eanem — 
Wornum  says,  that,  "how- 
ever inappropriate  in  their 
application  to  floors,  they 
are  examples  of  an  exuber- 
ance of  ornament  to  which 
few,  if  any,  modern  palaces 
can  offer  a  parallel." 

In  ornament  the  Pom- 
peian  offers  many  features 
that  remind  one  directly 
of  the  old  Egyptian  —  ev- 
idence of  the  Asiatic  in- 
fluence on  the  Greek  art 
which  the  Romans  used 
throughout  Magna  Grse- 

cia,  the  art  of  the  Persian,  Pompeian  Bath-room. 


L34 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


it  is  supposed,  having  been  derived  in  great  part  from  the  Egyptian,  its 
principal  difference  being  that  occasioned  by  the  exigencies  of  religion  and 
the  direction  of  the  Persian  priests.  One  can  imagine  in  it  traits  of  the 
luxury  of  Antioch  and  of  the  refinement  of  Alexandria,  and  it  is  likely 
that  some  barbaric  Carthaginian  splendor  may  have  helped  in  the  Pom- 
peian  deterioration  of  the  old  standard.  The  anthemion  was  its  constant 
attendant,  always  in  a  rather  formal  hieroglyphic- like  arrangement,  a 
spherical  triangle,  or  a  line  of  them,  somewhat  fan -shaped,  somewhat 
shell-shaped ;  the  fret  also,  the  sphinxes ;  and  besides  these  ancient  and 
conventional  forms  were  a  multitude  of  natural  imitations — flowers  every- 
where. There  were  an  immense  number  of  other  paintings  besides  these 
merely  beautiful  ones;  many  that  "appear  destined  for  banqueting-halls; 
dead  nature  predominates  in  them ;  you  see  nothing  but  pullets,  geese, 
ducks,  partridges,  fowls,  and  game  of  all  kinds ;  fruit  and  eggs,  amphorae, 
loaves  of  bread,  and  cakes." 

The  doors  of  the  rooms  that  were  thus  so  universally  decorated  were 
made  of  narrow  panels  surrounded  by  gilt  nails  or  bosses,  and  opening  by 
means  of  a  ring  inserted  as  a  handle ;  the  windows  were  glazed,  and  the 
curtains  were  hung  on  rings.  The  material  of  the  coverings  of  the 
couches,  with  their  finely  turned  legs,  was  striped  in  bands ;  and  here 
again,  although  the  stripes  are  directly  of  Asiatic  birth,  yet  taking  into 
consideration  the  undoubted  influence  of  Egypt  upon  the  East  and  all 
Asiatic  production,  it  is  probable  that  we  have  another  Egyptian  effect  on 
the  style ;  for  as  Mr.  Wornum,  whom  we  have  already  quoted,  says,  "  The 
Egyptian  decorator,  by  a  mere  symmetrical  arrangement,  has  converted 
even  the  incomprehensible  hieroglyphics  into  pleasing  and  tasteful  orna- 
ments, ....  generally  in  the  shape  of  a  simple  progression,  whether  in  a 
horizontal  line,  or  repeated  on  the  principle  of  the  diaper,  that  is,  row  upon 
row7,  horizontally  or  diagonally,.  .  .  .so  that  we  have  here  one  great  class 
of  ornament,  and  the  earliest  systematic  efforts  in  design  in  the  world's 
history," — which  would  seem  sufficiently  to  indicate  the  origin  of  these 
stripes  and  bands. 

Something  of  the  brilliancy  of  the  w7all  decoration  of  the  Pompeian 
may  be  gathered  from  its  use  of  wdiole  panels  and  of  their  surroundings, 
moulded  of  glass,  richly  stained  in  the  most  royal  colors,  and  sometimes 
with  all  their  ornament  stamped  into  them.  They  wrere  also  frequently 
gilt,  as  wTell  as  all  the  wood-work  about  them ;  and  sometimes  a  layer  of 
another  color  above  the  main  tint  was  cut  away  into  the  design,  as  a 
cameo  is  cut,  although  of  course  on  a  less  delicate  scale ;  and  wdien  the 
walls  themselves  were  not  ornamented  with  the  architectural  outlines, 
with  the  dark  panels  and  the  graceful  figures,  then  great  sheets  of  glass 


THE  POMPEIAN. 


135 


with  their  backs  darkened,  or  else  of  the  volcanic  obsidian  or  of  highly 
polished  silver,  took  their  place  and  reflected  the  forms  of  the  dwellers 
and  their  guests. 


Modern  Pompeiau  Parlor. 

Among  the  movable  articles  of  furniture  in  these  luxurious  homes 
there  were  pretty  tripods  of  bronze  to  sustain  the  braziers  that  sufficiently 
heated  the  rooms  in  such  chilly  weather  as  comes  to  the  Vesuvian  slope, 
to  hold  the  flowers  that  the  Pompeians  used  freely  as  the  old  Egyptians 
did,  to  uplift  the  lovely  sculpture ;  there  were  tall  candelabrum  stands 
carrying  wax- tapers,  or  else  from  their  branches  suspending  the  beautiful 
Pompeian  lamps.  A  table  taken  from  the  buried  city,  and  now  at  Naples, 
its  height  nearly  twice  its  breadth,  held  three  leopards'  haunches  upon  a 
flat  stand,  and  bound  them  together  with  an  elaborate  metal  open-work, 
and,  on  these,  three  androsphinxes,  their  wings  stretched  high  as  a  winged 
Victory's,  held  a  circular  tablet  ornamented  on  all  its  broad  rim  with 
mouldings  underneath  festoons  wreathing  the  famous  ox -head.  Such 
tables  as  these  were  sometimes  made  of  cedar,  on  ivory  feet,  sometimes  of 
silver,  and  even  of  gold ;  more  frequently  they  were  of  wood  whose  grain 
had  been  changed  during  growth  by  artificial  means,  so  as  to  present  a 
mottled  appearance  —  some  called  tigrinse,  some  pantheringe,  and  some, 
again,  eyed  like  the  peacock's  tail ;  and  there  were  tables  made  of  citron- 
wood,  worth  more  than  fifty  thousand  dollars.  It  cannot  but  be  felt, 
therefore,  that  the  Pompeian  in  the  original  is  a  style  whose  name  be- 


136 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


longed  to  a  period  of  utter  luxury ;  not  that  luxury  where  art  was  lost  in 
madness,  as  in  the  Rococo,  but  where,  although  it  reminded  you  of 

"  Fruits  of  the  fig-tree,  rathe  ripe,  rotten  rich," 

it  was  yet  controlled  by  some  purpose  and  some  tradition,  and  if  it  did 
exert  itself  for  the  complete  gratification  of  the  senses,  never  forgot  to 
gratify  them  by  the  means  of  beauty.  Venus  Physica,  or  the  beauty  in 
material  nature,  was  the  tutelary  goddess  of  the  city.  "May  he  who 
injures  this  picture  have  the  wrath  of  the  Pompeian  Yenus  upon  him !" 
was  the  imprecation  an  artist  there  was  found  to  have  attached  to  his 
work. 

The  Pompeian  is  not  exactly  the  style  for  parade,  for  public  use,  or 
for  great  state  occasion ;  but  for  festal  life,  for  luxury,  for  the  enjoyment 
of  wealth  and  ease  and  beauty,  it  may  take  the  lead.  The  best  of  the 
early  Renaissance  is  but  a  less  daring  effort  after  what  the  Pompeian  had 
developed ;  the  best  of  the  Louis  Seize  is  but  a  feeble  echo  of  it.  If  its 
art  was  mingled  with  a  thousand  Persian  and  Egyptian  impurities,  it  took 
no  impurity  that  was  not  already  a  beauty,  and  with  its  courageous  color 
and  contrast  it  evolved  a  wonderful  and  magnificent  charm  from  the  con- 
glomerate. 

In  its  modern  use,  only  the  merest  fraction  of  this  magnificence  could 
be  countenanced.  It  is  as  entirely  inconsistent  with  the  arrangement  and 
the  spirit  of  our  homes  as  if  it  were  a  work  of  enchantment,  and  of 
course  no  one  can  be  literally  advised  to  furnish  in  such  a  prodigal  and 
voluptuous  style ;  and  it  will,  indeed,  be  a  vast  fortune  that  will  not  be 
quite  willing  to  pause  after  so  much  expenditure  as  a  single  room  wiil 
require,  and  content  itself  for  the  rest  with  the  things  of  less  extraordi- 
nary life.  Yet  the  things  of  merely  common  life  would  hardly  be  com- 
panionable with  such  grace  and  luxury  of  loveliness;  and  if  one  begins 
with  the  Pompeian,  the  remainder  of  the  house  must,  at  any  rate,  be 
sufficiently  rich  and  fine  to  present  no  violent  contrast.  A  purer  Classic 
may  give  it  tone ;  it  may  slip  for  relief  into  the  Louis  Seize  or  the  early 
Renaissance  ;  it  being  usually  understood,  meanwhile,  that  a  house  fur- 
nished in  more  than  one  style  is  full  of  anachronisms,  and  greets  one  at 
the  threshold  with  an  exhibition  of  questionable  taste. 


THE  FIRST  EMPIRE. 


137 


XXL 

THE  FIRST  EMPIRE. 

fT^HE  only  thing  to  be  expected  of  furniture  after  the  great  Napoleon 
-JL  came  to  his  power  was  that  it  should  develop  itself  into  what  is 
known  as  the  style  of  the  First  Empire,  which,  although  for  purposes  of 
convenience  we  speak  of  it  as  a  style,  is  altogether  so  mistaken  an  affecta- 
tion, so  hybrid  a  birth,  that  it  has  scarcely  so  much  right  to  the  title  as 
had  the  Louis  Seize.  Thus,  when  wTe  hear  an  article  of  the  furniture  and 
interior  decoration  of  the  First  Empire  declared  to  be  in  pure  or  impure 
style,  it  seems  as  laughable  a  confusion  of  terms  as  if  one  should  speak  of 
the  pure  mongrel. 

This  fashion  is  sometimes  known  as  the  Neo-Grec;  but  if  Grecian 
severity,  and  the  tenderness  toward  the  forms  of  the  ancient  republics  and 
the  popular  rights  they  granted,  had  inspired  any  of  the  ideas  of  the  re- 
cent past  in  art  and  fashion,  the  Napoleonic  ideas  were  tainted  by  Roman 
grandeur  and  its  imperial  appanage ;  partly,  perhaps,  through  the  character 
of  the  Classic  that  had  prevailed  in  France  both  in  the  early  Renaissance 
and  the  Quatorze  periods,  which  wTas  borrowed  in  one  case  from  the  florid 
and  in  the  other  from  the  grandiose  Roman  schools,  rather  than  at  all 
from  the  serene  and  stately  Doric,  and  from  whose  influence  it  was  not 
easy  entirely  to  escape.  Indeed,  some  beautiful  tables,  ornamented  with 
metal  mounts  after  the  designs  of  Can  vet,  whose  patron  was  the  late 
king's  brother,  and  made  for  the  pleasure-house  of  the  queen  at  the  Petit 
Trianon,  were  sufficiently  in  style  to  adorn  the  Palace  of  St.  Cloud  in  the 
Emperor's  day.  And,  moreover,  the  new  Csesar — with  whom,  in  spite  of 
the  real  greatness  wrapped  out  of  sight  by  his  cloak  of  theatrical  display, 
the  world  wTas  always  en  scene  —  could  hardly  forget  the  old  one;  and 
whether  or  not  he  desired  to  restore  art  to  the  place  it  held  before  Alex- 
ander, the  other  great  general  of  the  world,  had  debased  it  by  the  intro- 
duction of  such  Oriental  luxury,  after  his  conquest  of  Asia,  that  the  name 
of  a  Greek  became  synonymous  with  extravagant  sensualism  and  the  total 
degradation  of  art,  yet  he  succeeded  only  in  making  the  style  of  the  First 
Empire  something  tarnished  by  Roman  reproduction  in  its  inheritance,  and 
administered  to  its  ruin  by  a  vicious  French  fancy. 


138 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


The  Revolution  had  thrown  out  of  France  most  of  those  who  were 
able  to  be  purchasers,  and  discriminating  purchasers,  of  tine  furniture, 
and  there  had  been  no  serious  attempt  for  some  years  at  any  artistic  man- 
ufacture. All  that  had  occurred  in  this 
line  was  the  rifling  of  the  palaces  of  the 
old  order  to  dress  out  the  palaces  of  the 
new.  When  the  Empire  became  a  fact, 
and  its  revenues  were  well  in  hand  to 
assist  its  pageantry,  attention  was  paid 
to  this  subject  of  household  decoration, 
and  the  Greek  became  the  countersign 
— the  Greek  known  in  ancient  Iiome. 
It  was  perhaps  felt  that  the  forms  of 
art  to  accompany  the  last  empire,  with 
all  its  gigantic  conquests  and  pride, 
must  be  those  which  had  accompanied 
the  vaster  empire  when  its  chains 
bound  the  known  world. 

Pint  Empire  Psyche-glass.  rj^  jv^  Empjre  neyer  accomplish. 

ed  its  aim  of  setting  before  us  the  antique  at  its  height  of  graceful  and  per- 
fect simplicity.  The  Grecian  chair, 
which  in  one  of  its  forms  is,  for  charm- 
ing outline  and  lightness,  absolute 
perfection,  seemed  a  tame  affair  to 
the  later  artificers ;  they  either  made 
it  bald  by  their  toning  down,  or  else 
rendered  it  unrecognizable  with  or- 
nament. In  either  event  their  want 
of  taste  wras  only  equalled  by  their 
ignorance.  If  they  did  not  put  shoes 
upon  the  feet  of  their  winged  angels, 
as  some  modern  painters  do,  they  ar- 
ranged Helen's  hair  as  a  French  hair- 
dresser would  arrange  it,  gave  a  Pa- 
risian cut  to  peplum  and  chlamys, 
put  implements  of  the  present  into 
the  hands  of  the  past,  mixed  the  de- 
tails of  their  ornament  inextricably,  First  Empire  Arill-Chair- 
scattered  the  Athenian  bees  broadcast,  and  seemed  to  think  the  sacrifice 
to  the  Grecian  spirit  was  complete  by  oblations  of  nudity,  unaware  that 
the  perfect  beauty  and  grace  of  the  ancient  nude  wTas  in  itself  a  garment. 


THE  FIRST  EMPIRE. 


139 


The  whole  contour  of  furniture  and  its  decoration,  in  the  attempt  to 
represent  the  antique,  was  as  conspicuously  inexact  as  the  short-waisted 
gown  and  rulf  of  Josephine  were  in  representing  the  lovely  dress  of 
Aspasia  and  Rhodope.  Vague  ideas  without  precise  information  moved 
the  whole  period,  and  designers  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  go  farther 
for  their  instruction  than  to  the  dry  bones  and  the  unreal  art  of  the 
painter  David.  Chairs  and  tables  thought  their  whole  duty  as  chairs  and 
tables  was  done  when  they  presented  an  antique  simulation,  and  were  sat- 
isfied with  themselves  if  they  had  concealed  their  own  structure  behind 
the  bass-relief  belonging  to  an  ancient  vase  or  the  frieze  of  a  temple — 
bass-relief  neither  well  understood  nor  rightly  repeated,  slenderness  of 
knowledge  being  assisted  in  the  result  by  poverty  of  imagination.  The 
style,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  mechanical  points,  such,  for  instance,  as 
the  fine  alabaster  finish  it 
gave  to  wrood  when  desired 
— a  practice  as  legitimate  as 
that  of  ebonizing — possesses 
no  claims  upon  favor.  For 
although  the  largest  free- 
dom of  choice  is  to  be  al- 
lowed, yet  in  certain  mat- 
ters taste  is  arbitrary :  if, 
that  is,  a  thing  assumes  to 
be  classic,  good  taste  requires 
that  it  shall  be  pure  classic, 
and  not  the  classic  of  &  petit 
maitre. 

As  a  tendency  toward  the 
style  already  existed  in  the 
days  of  the  Directory,  al- 
though in  a  severer  shape, 
its  growth  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  altogether  a  trib- 
ute to  the  emperor  or  an 
emanation  from  his  pride. 
Doubtless  many  of  its  peculiarities  were  formed  by  rumor  of  those  ancient 
treasures  that  were  opened  to  general  knowledge  by  the  late  campaigns  and 
victories ;  and,  for  the  rest,  it  was  probably  still  awTare  of  that  influence 
which  had  been  exerted  upon  the  art  of  the  previous  period  by  the  un- 
earthing of  Pompeii  and  Herculaneum  in  its  gradual  progress.  Yet  al- 
though the  marvels  of  the  buried  cities,  in  all  their  extravagant  beauty, 


First  Empire  Bedstead. 


140 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


were  carried  to  the  museums  of  Naples  "and  Portici,  and  open  to  all  the 
world,  they  were  too  florid  to  be  of  the  same  use  that  they  had  been  in 
the  Louis  Seize,  and  seem  never  to  have  commanded  any  strict  study  from 
the  designers  of  the  Empire.  They  were  not  the  noblest  examples  of  art 
themselves,  to  be  sure ;  Asiatic  sensuality  had  corrupted  art  at  its  fountain- 
head,  and  we  are  still  suffering  from  the  poison  it  instilled ;  but  they  were 
of  a  wondrous  loveliness,  and  possessed  at  least  some  character — a  thing 
not  belonging  to  the  First  Empire. 

The  fashion  of  the  First  Empire,  on  the  whole,  in  spite  of  much  inev- 
itable beauty  that  could  not  altogether  fall  short  in  such  a  revival,  was  a 
sham  scholarship  and  a  hollow  imitation  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  pageant- 
ry of  the  past — glory  calling  unto  glory.  If  the  glory  had  chosen  to  de- 
velop a  style  for  itself,  something  of  infinitely  better  worth  might  have 
been  reached ;  as  it  is,  with  its  stiff  ugliness  and  ancient  pretensions,  with 
its  alabaster  and  imitative  finish  of  common  articles,  with  the  fasces  of  the 
lictor  bound  at  every  angle,  its  unfailing  pediments  and  metopes,  coupled 
with  details  at  which  Pericles  might  have  laughed,  it  reminds  one  of  the 
hero  who  undertook  to  revive  the  past  ages  on  his  ancestral  estate : 

"  So  all  that  the  old  dukes  had  been  without  knowing  it, 
This  duke  would  fain  know  he  was  without  being  it ; 
'Twas  not  for  the  joy's  self,  but  the  joy  of  his  showing  it, 
Nor  for  the  pride's  self,  but  the  pride  of  our  seeing  it." 

Of  course  there  was  a  great  deal  of  splendor  in  connection  with  every 
article;  inlay,  and  gilding,  marquetry,  and  metal  mounts,  had  already 
reached  a  point  where,  as  mere  work,  they  could  go  no  farther,  while 
carving  of  an  exquisite  nicety  had  renewed  itself  under  the  last  regime. 
The  whole  brilliant  array  of  the  thing  had  an  imperial  guise  of  its  own, 
but  one  in  no  way  befitting  the  greatness  of  the  period  or  the  wonderful 
genius  of  the  man  who  shaped  that  period  to  his  own  ends. 

Poor  as  the  style  was,  the  Second  Empire  would  not,  perhaps,  have 
felt  that  it  was  reviving  its  ancestral  rights  if  it  had  not  revived  this  bas- 
tard form  of  art  with  them.  It  mingled,  however,  so  many  Cupids  and 
ribbons  and  unessential  elements  with  it  that  it  neither  deserved  nor  re- 
ceived any  wide  countenance  or  continuation. 


THE  MOORISH. 


141 


XXII. 

THE  MOORISH. 

ALTHOUGH  very  few  have  had  the  audacity  to  attempt  a  whole 
house  in  a  fantastic  style,  it  has  not  been  uncommon  to  see  a  con- 
servatory and  its  anteroom  in  the  Moorish,  or  a  parlor  in  the  Pompeian,  or 
a  cabinet — as  certain  small  and  more  private  rooms  used  to  be  called — in 
the  Chinese ;  while  the  remaining  rooms  of  the  dwelling  are  merely  in  the 
prevailing  fancy  of  the  day,  whatever  that  fancy  happens  to  be. 

It  is  a  singular  thing  that  two  styles,  originally  the  expression  of  two 
so  very  opposite  religions  and  lives  as  the  Saracenic  or  Moorish  and  the 
Gothic,  should  really  have  sprung  from  one  and  the  same  source,  the  By- 
zantine. 

The  art  that  arose  in  Byzance  is  called  peculiarly  the  Christian  art. 
Spurning  all  the  elements  of  beauty  in  ancient  art,  it  adopted  only  sym- 
bols that  reminded  the  worshipper  of  his  faith,  just  as  the  Egyptian  had 
done.  The  Greek  took  the  Egyptian  symbols  and  used  them,  irrespective 
of  their  signification,  for  the  sake  of  whatever  loveliness  was  to  be  found 
in  them ;  the  Saracen  took  the  Byzantine  symbols  and  used  them  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way.  Some  modification  took  place  on  the  part  of  the 
Saracen,  of  course,  as  his  religion  expressly  forbade  the  use  of  any  imita- 
tion of  a  thing  of  life,  and  it  required  some  art  and  artifice  to  evade  the 
prescription.  In  the  Byzantine  all  the  beautiful  old  ornamental  forms  of 
Greek  and  Roman  were  rejected  on  account  of  their  paganism ;  and  the 
serpent,  the  cross,  the  fish,  the  vesica,  with  a  few  crude  details,  constituted 
the  decoration  of  the  primitive  style — among  these  details  the  fleur-de-lis, 
or  lily,  emblem  of  purity,  appearing  long  before  it  became  the  lily  of 
France.  The  style  was  made  all  the  easier  for  the  Saracen  by  the  fact 
that  all  its  representations  were  conventional,  the  saint  being  known  by 
his  emblems  and  colors.  The  Saracen  might  have  been  safe  in  repeating 
them,  for  they  certainly  at  first  resembled  nothing  actually  in  heaven 
above,  or  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  in  the  waters  under  the  earth.  In  color, 
however,  the  Byzantine  artist  had  free  play,  and  here  the  Saracenic  took 
advantage  of  its  archeus,  and  used  the  richest  tints  with  the  most  intricate 
variations. 


U2 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


As  Byzantine  art  progressed,  its  symbolism  became  less  oppressive, 
and  its  artists,  who  worked  in  a  faithful  spirit,  exceedingly  skilful.  Little 
by  little  old  forms  crept  in :  the  scroll  was  countenanced,  rude  and  sharp, 
and  feathering  off  its  foliations  into  the  sacred  lily  or  fleur-de-lis;  and 
after  about  five  centuries  of  the  old  life  it  gave  up  the  effort  to  separate 
itself,  and  adopted  the  greater  part  of  the  ancient  forms  to  its  own  use  and 
interpretation,  handling  them,  of  course,  with  less  grace  and  freedom  and 
less  knowledge  of  aj^propriateness  and  purity  than  in  the  original,  but 
yet  making  a  much  wider,  and  in  many  respects  nobler,  variation  of  itself 
than  when,  as  before,  the  only  notable  ornaments  were  the  tracery  of  ser- 
pents, the  circles,  and  the  cross  crushing  the  serpent  again.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  observe  the  departure  of  features  of  the  style  into  the  North,  on 
the  one  hand,  as  germs  of  another  and  grander,  carried  there  by  means 
of  the  priesthood,  and  by  the  Northern  soldiers  who  served  in  the  empire, 
a  very  noteworthy  vestige  of  which,  the  author  of  the  "Analysis  of  Orna- 
ment" tells  us,  is  to  be  seen  in  the  "cross  surrounded  by  the  so-called 
Runic  knot,  which  is  only  a  Scandinavian  version  of  the  original  Byzan- 
tine image  —  the  crushed  snake  curling  round  the  stem  of  the  avenging 
cross;"  and  the  departure  into  the  South,  on  the  other  hand,  as  germs  of 
a  richer,  gayer  style,  the  companion  of  splendor  and  luxury,  in  its  use  by 
Greek  artists  compelled  to  obey  Mohammedan  direction  and  evolve  the 
Saracenic,  which  insisted  upon  beauty,  but  insisted  also  upon  obedience 
in  some  form  to  the  commandment  of  making  no  "  graven  image." 

When  in  the  seventh  century  the  Arabs  captured  Damascus,  they  got 
a  fair  share  of  the  Byzantine  beauty  with  it.  They  were  a  wandering, 
tenting  race,  suddenly  launched  into  power  and  glory  and  the  possession 
of  walled  cities,  loving  color  and  brilliancy,  and  dazzled  by  the  splendor 
of  the  architecture  and  ornament  of  which  they  had  just  become  the  mas- 
ters. They,  too,  must  go  to  building ;  and  palaces  and  tombs  and  mosques 
must  be  had ;  and  as  they  had  no  artists  of  their  own,  of  course  the  cap- 
tive workmen,  or,  at  any  rate,  those  belonging  to  the  conquered  cities, 
must  build  for  them,  and  build  and  work  according  to  their  requirements. 
There  was  no  way  of  positively  disobeying  the  Mohammedan  will  that 
chose  to  have  the  most  elaborate  ornament,  but  refused  to  have  any  actual 
form  or  imagery  repeated  ;  painting  and  gilding,  stone  and  stucco,  mar- 
quetry and  mosaic,  must  be  employed,  and  with  designs  of  interest  and 
beauty,  bat  not  an  animal  or  vegetable  shape  must  appear  in  those  designs. 
But  the  Greek  artists  were  a  cunning  folk.  They  were  already  by  this 
time  sufficiently  skilful  and  ingenious  to  evade  the  law  without  precise 
disobedience.  In  all  the  Moorish  cities  examples  of  the  way  they  did  it 
are  to  be  seen.    The  necessity  under  which  they  labored  stimulated  the 


THE  MOORISH. 


143 


fancy,  and  out  of  their  old  material  they  actually  created  a  new  style,  as 
beautiful  in  its  way  as  anything  since  styles  began.  It  was  a  style  of  pure 
ornament ;  one  had  only  to  enjoy  it,  and  no  longer,  as  in  the  Byzantine  or 
as  in  the  Egyptian,  to  pause  in  the  aesthetic  emotion  for  the  sake  of  inter- 
preting to  and  exhorting  the  religious  one.  It  was  a  style,  thus  it  may  be 
seen,  of  beauty  of  line,  not  of  object.  A  curve  was  saved  from  weakness 
bj  an  accompanying  angle;  an  angle  was  softened  by  a  curve;  the  whole 
was  interlaced  and  woven  with  bands  in  arches  and  ogees  and  with  little 
petal-like  shapes  arranged  with  symmetry  in  every  space  and  interstice. 
There  were  horns  of  plenty  that  paused  just  on  the  verge  of  being  horns 
of  plenty  pouring  out  their  fruits  and  flowers ;  there  were  anthemions 
that  the  Arab  never  knew  for  an  anthemion  ;  there  were  pastoral  crooks 
turning  into  scrolls,  questioning  whether  they  were  not  stems  of  blossoms ; 
there  were  flower  and  leaf  shapes  that  caught  themselves  back  just  declar- 
ing their  identity.  They  suggest,  but  they  do  not  complete,  the  parallel; 
in  all  cases  the  precise  resemblance  is  avoided  the  moment  before  it  is  too 
late.  Besides  all  this,  there  was  a  world  of  strap- work — a  sacrifice  perhaps 
to  the  trim  and  tackle  of  the  gay  Arab  horsemanship ;  and  there  were 
introduced  everywhere  Arabic  inscriptions,  each  character  and  stroke  of 
which  was  treated  as  though  it  were  itself  a  flower.  The  crescent,  by-the- 
way,  does  not  at  all  appear  in  any  early  or  pure  Saracenic  work.  It  had 
been  in  use  in  Byzance  from  time  immemorial  as  a  type  of  the  civic  grati- 
tude to  Providence,  a  new  moon  having  once  revealed  a  threatened  night 
attack  upon  the  city,  and  Byzance  itself,  with  its  crescent,  did  not  belong 
to  the  Mohammedan  power  till  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Of  course  all  this  swarming  multitudinous  ornament  could  not  be 
grouped  without  some  reference  to  schemes  of  arrangement  already  exist- 
ing in  the  artist's  mind  and  memory  ;  and  probably  to  this  are  due  its 
perfect  symmetry  and  certain  standard  effects  in  the  design  which  always 
governed  and  controlled  the  whole. 

Perhaps  the  most  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Moorish  style,  after  the 
horseshoe  arch,  to  the  casual  glance,  are  the  beauty  and  variety  of  its  pat- 
terns of  diaper ;  and  as  it  covers  the  surface  of  its  walls  with  this  diaper, 
it  has  always  had  a  great  field  for  their  development.  The  colors  are 
chiefly  blue  and  crimson  thrown  up  with  silver  and  gold  in  profuseness, 
the  pattern  of  the  tracery  exceedingly  intricate,  although  recurrent,  and 
the  suggested  floral  shapes  of  the  gilding  giving  the  whole  wall,  with  its 
usual  light  colors  and  airy  arches,  a  joyous  and  exquisite  ensemble  —  a 
beauty  constantly  renewing  itself  with  fresh  complications  of  lines,  and 
thus  never  palling  upon  the  fancy,  as  sooner  or  later  all  other  sorts  of  too 
luscious  beauty  will.    These  diaper  patterns  were  originally  in  imitation 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


of  the  rich  stuffs  that  the  Arabs  treasured,  and  with  which  the  East  sup- 
plied them — stuffs  that  not  only  supplied  designs  to  the  Arabs,  but  were 
the  source  of  almost  all  the  European  wall-decoration,  as  well  as  of  much 
other  ornament.  "  It  is  evident,"  says  Mr.  Hayes,  in  his  charming  article 
upon  the  precious  stuffs  of  the  Middle  Ages,  "  that  the  arts  of  design  and 
decoration  came  to  Europe  from  the  East  with  the  stuffs  of  India,  China, 
Persia,  and  Greece,  which  European  artists  imitated  not  only  in  the  walls 
of  religious  and  civil  edifices,  but  in  the  smaller  details  of  construction,  in 
works  of  jewellery  and  enamels  and  illuminations.  So  closely  were  Ori- 
ental designs  imitated,  that  the  Arabian  inscriptions,  traced  upon  the  tis- 
sues coming  from  Mussulman  countries,  became  arabesques  under  the  pen- 
cils of  European  artists  and  decorators."  And  Mr.  Hayes  further  adds 
that  "  as  the  gold  woven  in  the  most  ancient  fabrics  of  the  East  still  re- 
mains undimmed  by  rust  or  time,  so  do  golden  threads  of  Oriental  taste 
survive  not  only  in  the  ornamented  tissues  of  the  present  day,  but  upon 
the  hangings  of  our  walls,  the  friezes  of  our  apartments,  the  mouldings  and 
scroll-work  of  our  furniture,  and  the  chasing  and  engraving  of  our  plate 
and  jewellery."  Elsewhere  we  are  told  that  the  cloths  of  Genoa,  the  tap- 
estries of  Arras,  all  damasks,  and  even  our  modern  wall-papers,  were  and 
are,  when  in  good  taste,  obedient  to  the  spirit  of  these  Moorish  diapers 
and  their  Oriental  archetypes,  which  latter,  indeed,  are  said  first  to  have 
suggested  painting  to  the  Athenians. 

This  Moorish  work  is  evidently  something  more  in  accord  with  the 
summer  palaces  of  wealth  than  with  the  homes  of  people  whose  income 
is  restricted,  although  we  see  no  reason  why  every  house,  however  small, 
where  there  are  any  means  at  all,  should  not  cherish  a  little  conservatory, 
and  there  some  features  of  the  style  may  always  be  indulged,  such  as 
arcades  of  the  delicate  columns  upholding  those  lovely  Moorish  arches 
that  are  so  light  and  buoyant  and  beautiful  that,  when  the  wall  surface 
about  them  is  decorated  with  gilding  and  colors,  they  seem  just  about  to 
soar  aloft  like  so  many  bubbles.  Of  course,  wherever  the  Moresque  may 
be  adopted,  nobody  expects  to  see  anything  like  the  palaces  of  the  Moor- 
ish nobles  of  Granada,  their  halls  paved  with  the  richest  mosaics,  their 
walls  inlaid  with  cedar  or  decorated  in  azure  and  gold  and  vermilion,  with 
fountains  in  all  the  courts,  or  like  the  Tower  of  the  Princesses  in  the 
Alhambra,  which  Washington  Irving  describes  as  divided  into  "fairy 
apartments  beautifully  ornamented  in  the  light  Arabian  style,  surrounding 
a  lofty  hall  the  vaulted  roof  of  which  rose  almost  to  the  summit  of  the 
tower.  The  walls  and  the  ceilings  of  the  hall  were  adorned  with  ara- 
besques and  fretwork  sparkling  with  gold  and  brilliant  pencilling.  In  the 
centre  of  the  marble  pavement  was  an  alabaster  fountain  set  round  with 


THE  MOORISH. 


145 


aromatic  shrubs  and  flowers,  and  throwing  up  a  jet  of  water  that  cooled 
the  whole  edifice,  and  had  a  lulling  sound.  Round  the  hall  were  suspended 
cages  of  gold  and  silver  wire,  containing  singing-birds  of  the  finest  plumage 
or  sweetest  note."  Nor  shall  wTe  find  anything  exactly  like  the  house  to 
which  one  of  the  Three  Girls 
carried  the  Porter,  in  the 
"  Tales  of  the  Thousand 
Nights  and  One  Night:" 
"A  fair  court-yard,  built  by 
rule  of  geometry  very  excel- 
lently, the  essence  of  compo- 
sition and  proportions;  and 
there  was  a  balcony  and  awn- 
ings to  it,  and  minarets,  and 
private  rooms  with  curtains 
hung  before  them,  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  court -yard  a 
large  tank  filled  with  water, 
and  in  it  a  fountain,  and  at 
the  upper  end  of  the  court- 
yard a  raised  dais  of  cy- 
press-wood set  with  gems, 
with  a  loose  curtain  hung 
about  of  red  damask  silk,  the 
buttons  of  it  pearls  as  large 
as  nuts,  and  larger." 

This,  indeed,  is  all  very 
picturesque  and  pretty  in  the 
past  and  on  the  poet's  pages ; 
but  with  our  modern  every- 
day life  it  is  unnecessary  to 
say  that  it  is  not  at  all  in 

unison,  and  its  use  to  any  great  extent  is  contrary  to  the  common-sense 
of  the  day.  None  but  the  very  wealthy  and  those  that  can  afford  ec- 
centric surprises  in  their  dwellings  can  be  advised  to  adopt  a  summer 
parlor,  or  a  smaller  cabinet,  in  the  Morisco.  Of  course,  wherever  it  is 
used,  it  is  in  connection  with  the  richest  tints  and  gilding,  with  the  most 
sumptuous  gold-threaded  material  for  coverings  of  the  various  articles  of 
furniture,  which  all  follow  the  standard  Saracenic  outlines,  and  as  a  gen- 
eral rule  are  entirely  covered  with  drapery  and  cushions,  revealing  no 
wood-work,  after  the  fashion  of  the  divans  of  the  East.    Neither  pictures 

10 


Moresque  Sofa,  Mirror,  and  Vase 


146 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


nor  statues  can  accompany  it;  but  all  sorts  of  summer -life  suggestions 
are  in  keeping  with  it.  There  should  be  plate -glass  windows,  that  give 
the  sense  of  out-door  enjoyment  through  their  clear  space,  looking  into 
a  garden  where  a  fountain  plays,  or  else  latticed  with  gilt  and  opening 
into  conservatories;  household  pets  are  a  part  of  it  too,  birds  in  gilt 
cages,  parrots  swinging  in  their  hoops ;  and  in  a  room  furnished  in  the 
Moresque,  after  gilding,  diaper  paper,  lattices,  divans,  the  great  vases  fa- 
miliar in  the  "Arabian  Nights,"  and  mats  upon  cool  floors  have  done  their 
best,  the  guitar  and  some  great  foreign-looking  tropical  plants  must  not  be 
forgotten  in  producing  the  general  effect. 


THE  EASTLAKE. 


147 


XXIII. 

THE  EASTLAKE. 

SOMETHING-  more  than  half  a  dozen  years  ago,  a  number  of  essays, 
written  by  Mr.  C.  L.  Eastlake,  were  printed  in  the  various  English  pub- 
lications, and  afterward  collected  in  a  volume  that  has  done  a  great  work 
toward  revolutionizing  the  manufacture  of  furniture.  Criticism,  in  the 
beginning,  was  almost  altogether  barred  from  the  ideas  propounded  in 
these  essays  by  Mr.  Eastlake' s  asserting  that  if  the  virtuoso  should  find 
them  wanting  in  antiquarian  research,  the  scientific  man  in  technical  in- 
formation, and  the  sentimentalist  in  the  poetry  of  art,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  nothing  more  had  been  attempted  than  to  show  readers  how  to 
furnish  their  houses  picturesquely,  yet  with  reference  to  modern  ideas  of 
comfort. 

The  book  met  a  great  want.  Not  a  young  marrying  couple  who  read 
English  were  to  be  found  without  "Hints  on  Household  Taste"  in  their 
hands,  and  all  its  dicta  were  accepted  as  gospel  truths.  They  hung  their 
pictures  and  their  curtains  just  as  Mr.  Eastlake  said  they  should ;  laid 
their  carpets,  colored  their  walls,  hinged  their  doors,  arranged  their  china, 
bought  their  candlesticks,  insisted  on  their  andirons,  procured  solid  wood, 
abjured  veneering,  and  eschewed  curves,  all  after  Mr.  Eastlake's  own 
heart.  If,  now,  it  is  seen  that  some  things  which  Mr.  Eastlake  laid  down 
as  immutable  and  irrevocable  laws  of  art  are  really  matters  of  taste,  to  be 
left  to  individual  decision,  it  nevertheless  remains  true  that  the  book  occa- 
sioned a  great  awakening,  questioning,  and  study  in  the  matter  of  house- 
hold furnishing.  Presently  there  arose  a  demand  for  furniture  in  the 
"  Eastlake  style." 

The  upholsterers,  with  whom  Mr.  Eastlake  had  made  quarrel  in  his 
pages,  denied  that  there  was  any  such  style.  Mr.  Eastlake  himself  had 
said  that  he  recommended  the  "  readoption  of  no  specific  type  of  ancient 
furniture  which  is  unsuited,  whether  in  detail  or  in  general  design,  to  the 
habits  of  modern  life."  It  was  the  spirit  and  principles  of  early  manu- 
facture which  he  desired  to  see  revived,  and  not  the  absolute  forms  in 
which  they  found  embodiment.  The  demand,  however,  was  one  which 
obliged  the  upholsterers  to  pocket  their  grudge,  and  if  there  were  no  East- 


148 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


lake  style,  to  invent  one ;  for  to-day  Eastlake  chairs,  ugly  past  belief,  but 
invincibly  strong,  Eastlake  bedsteads,  clean-sliaped  and  charming,  Eastlake 
wash-stands,  dressing  -  cases,  drawers,  and  cabinets,  are  to  be  seen  every- 
where disputing  the  palm  with  the  so-called  Queen  Anne,  and  quite  as 
quaint  and  picturesque  as  the  lately  revived  Tudor  styles.  Mr.  Eastlake 
called  the  Tudor  styles,  by-the-way,  or  perhaps  rather  the  Elizabethan  va- 
riety of  them,  "a  miserable  compromise  by  which  classic  details  of  the 
clumsiest  description  were  grafted  on  buildings  supported  by  the  Tudor 
arch  and  crowned  with  the  Tudor  gable.  It  is,"  he  continued,  "  perhaps 
the  bizarre  and  picturesque,  character  of  this  bastard  style  which  still  ren- 
ders it  popular  with  the  uneducated.  To  this  day  Elizabethan  mansions 
are  admired  by  sentimental  young  ladies."  But  there  are  other  judges  who 
consider  the  Tudor  styles,  and  the  Elizabethan  variety  of  them,  as  among 


Eastlake  Diuing-table. 


the  glories  of  old  England.  In  the  same  way  condemnation  was  pro- 
nounced upon  many  matters ;  among  the  rest  upon  all  realistic  wood-carv- 
ing ;  yet  the  world  will  always  recognize  the  marvellous  beauty  of  the 
realistic  carving  of  the  Quattrocento,  nor  will  the  exquisite  work  of  Grin- 
ling  Gibbons  be  ignored,  if  not  in  the  noblest  school  of  art,  nor  the  charm 
of  the  Palissy-ware  with  its  realistic  shells,  its  butterflies  and  flowers  and 
reptiles.  It  is  scarcely  by  wholesale  condemnations  or  arbitrary  pronun- 
ciamentos  that  real  improvement  can  be  made  in  the  direction  of  art  or 
anything  else.  The  wrise  seeker  is  seldom  so  entirely  sure  of  his  attain- 
ment as  to  be  absolutely  without  doubt  that  another  may  not  be  right. 

Mr.  Eastlake  was  not  always  perfectly  precise  in  his  archaeological  in- 
formation. In  commenting,  for  instance,  upon  the  usual  modern  dining-ta- 
ble,  and  with  much  justice  finding  it  unsatisfactory,  he  went  on  to  praise 
an  ancient  table,  and  to  say  that  "  it  was  from  no  lack  of  skill  that  this  old 
table  was  not  made  capable  of  being  enlarged  at  pleasure.   The  social  cus- 


THE  EASTLAKE. 


149 


toms  of  the  age  in  which  it  was  produced  did  not  require  such  a  piece  of 
mechanism.  In  those  days  the  dining- table  was  of  one  uniform  length, 
whether  a  few  or  many  guests  wTere  assembled  at  it ;  and  I  am  not  sure 
whether,  of  the  two  fashions,  the  more  ancient  one  does  not  indicate  a 
more  frequent  and  open  hospitality.  But  be  that  as  it  may,  if  the  Jaco- 
bean table  had  been  required  for  occasional  extension,  we  may  be  certain 
it  would  have  been  so  constructed,  and  that,  too,  on  a  more  workman-like 
principle  than  our  foolish  telescope  slide."  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
reader  will  find  in  Sir  Samuel  My  rick's  book  of  ancient  specimens,  still  in 
preservation,  an  old  table  made  to  pull  apart,  with  a  slide  and  an  exten- 
sion, precisely  the  thing  whose  existence  is  thus  denied.  In  another  place, 
speaking  of  the  design  of  a  piece  of  Moorish  pottery,  Mr.  Eastlake  said : 
"In  the  centre  or  hollow  portion  is  painted,  on  a  white  ground  and  in 
various  colors,  a  very  remarkable  pattern.  The  idea  seems  to  have  been 
taken  from  a  ship,  for  there  are  masts  and  sails,  and  pennants  flying,  and 
port-holes,  and  a  patch  of  bluish-green  below,  which,  I  presume,  must  be 
accepted  as  typical  of  water.  But  in  such  a  hurry  has  the  artist  been  to 
make  his  dish  gay  with  color  and  a  pleasant  flow  of  lines,  that  no  one  can 
say  which  is  the  bow  and  which  the  stern  of  his  vessel,  whether  we  are 
looking  at  her  athwart  or  alongships,  where  the  sea  ends  and  the  ship's 
side  begins,  and  finally,  what  relation  the  improbable  hulk  bears  to  the  im- 
possible rigging.  The  whole  thing  is,  pictorially  considered,  absolute  non- 
sense, and  yet,  as  a  bit  of  decorative  painting,  excellent."  Now,  it  is  much 
more  likely  that,  whether  the  Moorish  artist  was  in  a  hurry  or  not  to 
"  make  his  dish  gay  with  color  and  a  pleasant  flow  of  lines,"  it  is  not  be- 
cause of  that  hurry  that  one  cannot  say  which  is  the  bow  and  which  the 
stern  of  his  vessel,  or  where  the  sea  ends  and  the  ship  begins,  but  because 
of  the  fact  that  the  Moorish  artist  wTas  not  allowed  by  the  strict  require- 
ments of  his  religion  to  represent  a  single  article  of  still  or  animated  life ; 
and  desiring  to  paint  the  beauty  of  a  ship,  he  subtly  and  skilfully  repre- 
sented all  the  lovely  light  lines  and  curves  and  colors,  and  suggested  all 
the  idea  without  touching  the  reality  of  the  airy  architecture  of  the  sea. 

But  these  are  things  apart.  And  wTe  must  confess  that  it  would  be 
hard,  on  any  of  the  principles  of  taste  that  are  generally  thought  sound, 
to  find  fault  with  the  greater  part  of  Mr.  Eastlake's  recommendations, 
founded  as  they  are  upon  simplicity,  honesty,  and  propriety.  These  are 
the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Eastlake  style,  and  those  on  whose  basis 
the  upholsterers  had  to  work  when  the  style  was  demanded ;  and  if  artis- 
tic taste  and  grace  could  be  added  to  them,  the  style  would  be  perfect. 
The  articles  given  in  Mr.  Eastlake's  own  design  were  very  few,  although 
most  of  them  were  fine.    There  were  some  chairs,  at  once  exceedingly 


150 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


handsome,  stately,  and  graceful,  not  at  all  like  the  little  Eastlake  chair 
most  commonly  seen ;  a  bedstead  and  tester,  quaint  and  charming ;  a  hall 
and  extension  table ;  a  sideboard,  bookcase,  and  wash-stand ;  but  out  of 
the  material  of  these  articles  and  the  hints  they  afforded,  the  upholster- 
ers had  to  provide  the  whole  train  of  household  furniture  "after  East- 


Eastlake  Sideboard. 


lake."  They  have  succeeded  in  producing  an  interesting  variety,  quaint, 
with  an  attractive  air  of  antiquity,  full  of  character  and  picturesqueness, 
but  always  a  little  stiff,  and  seldom  very  graceful.  The  upholsterers 
themselves  have  no  fancy  for  its  straight  up-  and  -down  angularity; 
they  say  they  would  as  lief  be  shut  up  all  night  in  a  church  as  in  a 
room  with  it ;  and  they  describe  a  house  furnished  in  it  as  seeming  too 
solemn  for  any  of  the  trivialities  of  daily  life  ;  but  if  people  want  it, 
they  must  have  it.  Although  they  manufacture  the  article,  they  still 
seem  to  dislike  calling  it  "  the  Eastlake and  with  some  reason,  as  it  so 
nearly  fulfils  the  requirements  of  the  mediaeval  as  scarcely  to  need  a  sep- 
arate name — not  of  the  lovely  pointed  Gothic,  indeed,  with  its  perpetual 
poetry  and.  beauty,  but  of  the  modernized  Gothic,  in  which  the  principles 
of  early  manufacture  are  recognized,  and  whose  less  striking  shapes  are 
better  suited  to  common  domestic  use.    Mr.  Eastlake  himself  made  the 


THE  EASTLAKE. 


151 


production  of  tlie  articles  called  by  his  name  easy  to  the  furniture-makers. 
<k  Every  article  of  furniture,"  he  said,  "  which  is  capable  of  decorative 
treatment  should  indicate  by  its  general  design  the  purpose  to  which  it 
will  be  applied,  and  should  never  be  allowed  to  convey  a  false  notion  of 
that  purpose.  Experience  has  shown  that  particular  shapes  and  special 
modes  of  decoration  are  best  suited  to  certain  materials.  Therefore  the 
character,  situation,  and  extent  of  ornament  should  depend  on  the  nature 
of  the  material  employed,  as  well  as  on  the  use  of  the  article  itself.  On 
the  acceptance  of  these  two  leading  principles  —  now  universally  recog- 
nized in  the  field  of  decorative  art — must  always  depend  the  chief  merit 
of  good  design.  To  the  partial  and  often  direct  violation  of  those  princi- 
ples we  may  attribute  the  vulgarity  and  bad  taste  of  most  modern  work." 
Farther  on  Mr.  Eastlake  added  :  "  The  best  and  most  picturesque  furniture 
of  all  ages  has  been  simple  in  general  form.  It  may  have  been  enriched 
by  complex  details  of  carved  work  or  inlay,  but  its  main  outline  was 
always  chaste  and  sober  in  design,  never  running  into  extravagant  con- 
tour or  unnecessary  curves." 

Among  the  decided  principles  that  Mr.  Eastlake  pronounced  for  direc- 
tion are  such  as  that  mouldings  should  be  carved  from  the  solid,  not  made 
of  detached  slips  of  wood  glued  on  a  surface;  that  doors  should  be  hung 
on  long,  ornamented,  noble  hinges ;  that  surfaces  should  be  left  in  their 
native  hue,  never  varnished,  but  if  painted  at  all,  painted  in  flatted  color, 
with  a  "  line  introduced  here  and  there  to  define  the  construction,  with  an 
angle  ornament  (which  may  be  stencilled)  at  the  corners ;"  that  mitred 
joints  shall  be  abolished ;  that  joints,  moreover,  shall  be  tenoned  and 
pinned  together  without  the  nails  and  glues  in  use  at  present ;  that  an 
article  meant  to  bear  weight  shall  look  capable  of  bearing  it ;  that  chests 
of  drawers,  and  pieces  of  that  sort,  shall  never  bulge  out  in  front,  after 
the  style  that  came  in  with  the  Rococo,  but  shall  present  a  straight  line ; 
that  curves  shall  be  forsaken,  and  rounded  corners  abominated. 

The  tendency  of  the  present  age  of  upholstery,  Mr.  Eastlake  asserted,  is 
to  run  into  curves — a  vicious  reminder  of  the  old  Louis  Quatorze  extrava- 
gance of  contour.  "  Chairs  are  invariably  curved  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
insure  the  greatest  amount  of  ugliness  with  the  least  possible  comfort. 
The  backs  of  sideboards  are  curved  in  the  most  senseless  and  extravagant 
manner ;  the  legs  of  cabinets  are  curved,  and  become  in  consequence  con- 
structively weak ;  drawing  -  room  tables  are  curved  in  every  direction — 
perpendicularly  and  horizontally  —  and  are  therefore  inconvenient  to  sit 
at,  and  always  rickety.  In  marble  wash-stands  the  useful  shelf,  which 
should  run  the  whole  length  of  the  rear,  is  frequently  omitted  in  order  to 
insure  a  curve.    This  detestable  system  of  ornamentation  is  called  shaping." 


152 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Under  stress  of  such  remark  and  instruction,  the  curve,  as  usually  seen, 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  Eastlake  sofa  and  chair — the  curve  rising  and 
sinking  on  the  outlines  of  the  back,  and  sprawling  in  and  out  in  those  of 
the  legs.  The  legs  and  backs  of  these  articles  are  upright  and  downright, 
mortised  and  tenoned,  and  connected  with  under-bars,  and  consequently 
rather  heavy,  and  certainly  very  stiff;  and  the  frame- work  of  the  con- 
struction is  concealed  no  more  than  is  inevitable  by  the  springs,  padding, 
and  covering.  It  is  not,  however,  the  curve  as  a  line  that  is  objected  to, 
but  as  a  weakener  of  the  fibre  of  the  wood.    As  a  line  and  an  ornament, 

it  is  frequently  to  be  found  in  the 
style  —  between  the  shelves  of  the 
cabinet,  in  the  round -topped  panels 
of  other  articles,  in  many  various 
uses,  and  in  the  delicate  turner's- 
work  which  adorns  the  backs  and 
arms  of  chairs,  the  rolls  now  and 
then  on  the  foot -board  and  head- 
board of  bedsteads,  and  the  posts  of 
dressing-glasses. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  con- 
struction to  be  recognized  in  the 
Eastlake  style  is  from  the  solid  wood, 
unvarnished,  usually  without  veneer, 
made  in  the  simplest  manner  that 
conforms  to  the  purpose  of  the  ar- 
ticle, with  plain  uprights  and  -trans- 
verses  slightly  chamfered  at  the  cor- 
ners (that  is,  with  a  little  groove  or  a 
narrow  slanting  slice  pared  off) ;  and 
this  purpose  is  always  to  be  declared 
—  there  is  to  be  no  disposing  of  a 
bed  by  day  in  the  wardrobe  or  the 
lounge-box  :  the  bed  is  a  bed,  and  the 
wardrobe  a  wardrobe  unmistakably. 
Wherever  there  is  a  plain  surface  of  wood,  as  on  table-top,  sideboard  door, 
or  foot-board,  if  it  is  not  covered  with  the  single  deeply  moulded  panel,  or 
with  a  multitude  of  little  square  panels,  it  is  apt  to  be  made  of  narrow 
pieces  of  wood,  laid  crosswise,  meeting  each  other  pyramidally  at  one  end 
and  retreating  at  the  other,  held  in  place  by  vertical  and  horizontal 
pieces,  sometimes  the  narrow  pieces  running  in  one  slant  all  the  way,  but 
boxed  in  after  the  same  fashion,  the  effect  of  the  different  running  of  the 


Eastlake  Chair. 


THE  EASTLAKE. 


153 


grain  being  supposed  ornamental  in  itself,  much  after  the  idea  —  on  a 
vastly  enlarged  scale — of  the  Italian  tarsiatura,  where  some  of  the  shad- 
ing of  the  inlay  is  obtained  by  the  opposite  laying  of  the  grain.  The 
other  most  frequent  ornaments  are  the  insertion  of  painted  panels,  of  tiles 
and  plaques,  the  substitution  of  well -wrought  brass,  nickel,  and  iron 
handles  and  hinges  for  those  seen  customarily ;  and  in  the  choicest  exam- 
ples the  free  use  of  conventional  carvings  in  sunk  relief,  the  zigzag,  the 
shell,  the  trefoil,  the  tracery  of  a  bit  of  idealized  foliage.  With  all  this, 
the  furniture  of  this  description  is  a  vast  improvement  in  shape,  in  ideas, 
and  in  durability  to  anything  that  has  been  in  use  for  many  generations ; 
and  it  is  a  comfort  to  see  it  in  so  many  houses,  if  not  for  its  intrinsic 
•beauty,  yet  as  an  evidence  of  thought  that  has  dared  to  question  the  su- 
premacy of  that  Louis  Quatorze  arm-chair  that  has  so  long  held  the  scep- 
tre. If  the  Eastlake,  so  called,  is  not  all  in  itself  that  might  be  wished, 
if  it  is  here  and  there  a  little  inconsistent  with  itself,  it  yet  represents  a 
movement  seldom  if  ever  before  effected  by  a  single  person ;  and  it  has 
succeeded  in  inaugurating  a  new  regime,  which  bears  the  same  relation  to 
the  loose  and  wanton  Quatorze  and  Quinze  regimes  that  virtue  bears  to 
vice. 


154 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XXIV. 

THE  QUEEN  ANNE. 

SO  far  as  the  Queen  Anne  style  belongs  to  the  past  at  all,  it  belongs  to 
the  reigns  before  and  after  Queen  Anne  as  much  as  to  her  own  brief 
reign.  Anne  was  peculiarly  English,  says  her  historian ;  "  and  thus  full 
many  works  of  genius  and  renown,  though  they  may.  have  been  commenced 
under  William  or  continued  under  George,  are  taken  by  the  world  to  be  cen- 
tred in  her  reign.'-    It  was  certainly,  let  it  belong  to  whose  reign  it  may, 

a  great  departure  from  the  fashions 
of  the  court  of  James  II.,  an  exam- 
ple of  which  is  given  in  the  accom- 
panying cut.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  at 
court  and  in  the  politer  circles  of  the 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth  centu- 
ry, the  heavy  Classic  had  superseded 
nearly  everything  else.  Correctness 
and  elegance  were  supposed  to  be 
found  only  in  the  Greek  and  Roman 
styles  which  the  Renaissance  had 
brought  in,  which  it  was  believed 
were  then  to  be  had  in  pristine  vir- 
tue, and  in  which  the  greater  part  of 
the  public  buildings  and  palaces 
erected  during  the  eighteenth  and 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century  were  elaborately  designed.  The  mantel-pieces  which  we  show  to- 
day as  indubitably  of  Queen  Anne's  time  are  as  perfect  specimens  of  clas- 
sical device  and  workmanship  as  a  Grecian  could  desire — of  the  pure  Clas- 
sic, that  is,  with  columns  and  capitals  of  mathematical  perfection,  and 
wrought  up  with  all  of  that  ancient  ornament  which  is  severe  without  cold- 
ness, and  although  abundant,  yet  does  not  allow  itself  that  wild  exuberance 
of  lawless  grace  which  marks  the  Italian  methods  of  the  preceding  eras. 
For  these  mantel-pieces  in  the  original  there  is  now  an  immense  demand, 
and,  as  some  one  has  said,  pounds  are  paid  for  them  where  once  pence  were 


Silver  Furniture  of  the  Time  of  James  II. 


THE  QUEEN  ANNE. 


155 


ample  equivalent;  and  if  they  cannot  be  obtained,  even  by  tearing  down 
old  houses — there  is  a  regular  class  of  labor  for  such  purposes  in  England, 
whose  members  are  called  house-breakers — then  copies  of  them  are  almost 
as  eagerly  accepted.  It  was  doubtless  to  correspond  with  these  mantel- 
pieces in  their  tirst  estate  that  the  white  and  gilt  finish  and  upholstery 
which  filled  the  mansions  of  that  era  were  used ;  yet  it  is  not  with  any 
such  finish  and  upholstery  now  that  we  associate  the  name  in  general  of 
Queen  Anne  furniture. 

But  out  of  compliment  to  William  of  Orange  after  he  came  over  from 
Holland  to  become  king,  numerous  country-houses  that  happened  to  be 
building  in  the  last  part  of  his  brief  reign  were  built  with  Dutch  features. 
It  is  this  sort  of  country-house,  with  some  important  modifications  and  im- 
provements, to  be  sure,  that  seems  to  have  suggested  the  quaint  new  style 
of  architecture  which  goes  by  the  name  of  Queen  Anne ;  and  it  is  the  de- 
lightful furniture  of  these  mansions,  also  adapted  to  more  modem  ideas, 
built  in  defiance  of  the  severe  Classic,  but  soon  superseded  by  it,  that  is  the 
archetype  of  the  present  style  in  furniture. 

From  the  moment  of  its  reintroduction  the  Queen  Anne  style  met  with 
a  great  opposition,  which  it  is  but  just  conquering — now  from  dealers,  who 
disliked  the  interference  with  their  stock,  and  the  necessary  change  it  oc- 
casioned to  their  existing  designs  and  habits  ;  and  now  from  others,  pu- 
rists who  insisted  upon  the  "  unities,"  and  those  who  hated  to  have  their 
ideas  jostled  out  of  the  ruts  which  they  had  long  pursued,  or  objected  to 
having  it  forced  upon  them  that  they  had  not  already  reached  all  the  per- 
fection that  remains  to  be  had.  It  was  at  first  denied  that  there  was 
really  any  such  thing  as  a  Queen  Anne  style,  and  asserted,  as  if  one  could 
ask  anything  better,  that  a  parcel  of  poets  and  painters — William  Morris, 
Dante  Rossetti,  and  various  others — had  devised  it  between  them.  But 
when  the  genuine  articles  were  shown  that  had  descended  from  the  time 
just  preceding  Queen  Anne  and  following  her,  and  that  had  been  manu- 
factured during  her  reign,  and  it  was  seen  that  they  formed  the  working 
model  of  the  new  style,  and  sometimes  were  perhaps  fortunate  enough  to 
exceed  it,  it  had  to  be  confessed  that  if  the  painters  and  poets  were  at  all 
responsible  in  the  affair,  it  was  simply  in  having  the  fine  taste  first  to  ap- 
preciate that  overlooked  beauty. 

The  excitement  which  its  reintroduction  caused  was  rather  remarka- 
ble, and  all  sorts  of  conflicting  statements,  and  even  ignorant  ones,  were 
made  by  critics,  converts,  and  manufacturers;  these  maintaining  that  it 
was  original  and  indigenous,  those  declaring  it  mongrel  and  an  importa- 
tion. The  architects  and  designers  of  London,  in  their  usual  meetings, 
held  animated  discussions  concerning  the  phenomenon,  certain  of  them 


15G 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


announcing  their  ignorance,  and  seeking  information  from  its  sponsors. 
Mr.  P>arr\ ,  a  professor  at  the  Royal  Academy,  speaking  of  the  era  from 
which  it  professed  to  be  revived,  doubtingly  said:  "I  suppose  few  of  us, 
at  any  rate  until  lately,  would  have  been  disposed  to  credit  that  epoch 
with  any  well-defined  style.  Queen  Anne's  reign  recalls  to  our  minds 
principally  days  of  English  daring  and  triumphs  on  the  Continent,  child- 
ish affectations  and  intrigues  about  the  court   As  far  as  it  developed 

a  style  at  all,  it  would  seem  to  have  done  so  by  breaking  away  from  estab- 
lished traditions;  a  Renaissance,  in  fact,  but  less  strict  and  refined 

than  the  style  to  which  the  term  is  usually  applied."  Mr.  Stevenson, 
another  authority  on  such  matters,  said  of  the  style  that,  fundamentally,  in 
its  system  of  construction  and  in  its  forms  of  moulding,  the  Queen  Anne 
forms  were  the  same  as  the  common  vernacular  style — that  is  to  say,  the 
free  Classic,  the  vernacular,  the  customary  and  prevailing  method  every- 
where— with  a  touch  of  interest  and  art  added.    But,  on  the  other  hand, 


Hanging  Cabinets  of  Chippendale's  Design. 

Mr.  Spiers  declared  that  principles  were  entirely  wanting  in  this  style,  and 
there  was  nothing  whatever  to  reason  from.  Meanwdiile,  although  this 
voice  maintained  that  it  was  "  free  Classic,"  and  that  one  that  it  was  gotten 
up  by  a  clique  of  "  Gothic  devotees,"  and  another  that  it  had  the  merits 
of  the  Gothic  and  the  faults  of  the  Classic,  and  a  fourth,  while  confessing 
that  it  was  certainly  a  form  of  Classic,  was  sure  that  it  violated  all  classic 
rules,  and  still  others  claimed  that  it  combined  the  "  truthfulness,  variety, 
and  picturesqueness  of  the  Gothic  with  the  common-sense  of  the  Italian," 
despite  this  clamor  the  style  progressed,  the  sale  increased,  and  it  became 
the  fashion — a  passing  fashion,  say  the  critics.  No  one,  to  look  at  the 
illustrations  of  this  chapter,  would  imagine  that  their  simple  lines  and 


THE  QUEEN  ANNE 


157 


forms  could  have  occasioned  such  discussion  and  heat.  "We  are  now 
offered,"  said  the  Builder, "  the  revival  of  the  furniture  of  the  Queen 
Anne  and  Georgian  period,  of  which  Chippendale  and  Sheraton  were  the 
leading  makers.  Of  this  there  are  one  or  two  good  specimens  in  the  Mu- 
seum (South  Kensington)   This  type  of  furniture  revels  in  curved 

lines  and  surfaces  really  unsuitable,  as  we  have  before  said,  to  wood  con- 
struction, and  which,  in  fact,  seem  designed  to  create  difficulties  in  order 
to  overcome  them."  This,  by-the-way,  would  seem  to  be  a  mistake  into 
which  the  Builder  was  led  by  recollection  of  Chippendale's  collection  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  plates,  in  which  almost  all  of  the  earlier  ones  were 
designed  in  deference  to  the  Rococo,  then  in  vogue  on  the  Continent, 
and  which  were  full  of  "  curved  lines  and  surfaces  unsuitable  to  wood 
construction,  and  which,  in  fact,  seemed  designed  to  create  difficulties  in 
order  to  overcome  them,"  but  the  succeeding  portion  of  which  plates  were 
formed  upon  a  base  of  straight  lines  and  ornaments  of  simple  grace. 
"  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  this  school  of  furniture  design,  how- 
ever," the  Builder  continued.  "Its  execution  is  nearly  always  first-rate, 
and  articles  which  appear  slight  are  so  well  made  and  put  together  as  to 
have  a  fair  chance  of  outlasting  more  bulky-looking  objects.    There  is 

much  fancy  and  elegance  in  its  forms  and  it  deserves,  also,  the  praise 

of  being  a  purely  original  type  of  furniture  design,  not  imitative  of  any- 
thing else,  and  not  dependent  on  the  reproduction  of  forms  properly  be- 
longing to  architecture ;  and  if  somewhat  wanting  in  dignity,  it  lias  at 

least  elegance  and  refinement  to  recommend  it." 

The  Builder  was  certainly  right  in  allowing  the  style  elegance  and  re- 
finement. To  our  eye  it  has  dignity  too — as  much  dignity,  that  is,  as  be- 
longs to  the  parlor  rather  than  the  church.  It  makes  none  of  the  preten- 
sion of  the  Gothic,  and  has  none  of  the  wearisome  iteration  of  the  com- 
mon Classic.  It  seems  exactly  the  furniture  to  surround  unostentatious 
people  of  gentle  manners  and  culture. 

Articles  in  this  style  may  be  characterized  as  severely  square,  with 
sharp  corners,  standing  on  feet  usually  straight,  but  sometimes  slightly 
bending  outward,  built  in  an  upright  and  downright  fashion,  with  no  pre- 
tence and  no  sham,  the  motif  being  solidity  and  compactness.  The  panel- 
work  is  small,  square,  and  in  multiplicity.  When  glass  is  used,  it  is  always 
bevelled  plate;  a  tiny  Classic  balustrade  frequently  crowns  the  articles; 
and  they  are  decorated  to  the  last  point  with  carvings  in  the  face,  some- 
times of  birds,  fruit,  figures,  but  usually  with  conventional  treatment,  and 
largely  of  mere  floral  suggestions.  The  Queen  Anne  style,  then,  may  be 
summed  up  as  possessing  the  remarkable  simplicity  and  quietness  of  old 
work,  together  with  great  picturesqueness  and  some  quaintness.  Although 


158 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


straight  and  square,  with  right  lines  and  angles,  it  yet  contrives  to  have  a 
want  of  formality  and  a  freedom  from  restraint,  and  always  seems  to  be 
enriched  with  a  "flavor  of  the  past." 

A  great  deal  of  furniture  that  may  fairly  pass  under  the  head  of  Queen 
Anne  may  be  found  with  those  families  here  that  have  descended  from  the 
old  colonial  houses  of  our  own  country.  If  it  does  not  own  all  that  artis- 
tic finish  which  the  cultured  fancy  abroad  has  added  to  the  same  type,  it 

yet  remembers  whence  it  came, 
the  era  in  which  it  was  born, 
and  preserves  a  family  resem- 
blance. It  became  the  fash- 
ion with  us,  half  a  dozen  years 
ago,  to  gather  it  from  here  and 
there,  to  furbish  it,  to  discard 
Gothic  and  Renaissance  incom- 
petencies in  order  to  make 
room  for  it,  and  to  furnish  as 
far  as  possible  with  these  old 
waxed  and  polished  articles,  as 
if  one  had  ancestors  and  heir- 
looms. They  certainly,  with 
their  dark  surfaces,  their  per- 
fect lines,  their  quaint  carving,  and  their  very  few  but  choice  brasses, 
make  up  a  lovely  interior.  Many  of  these  are  not  easily  distinguished 
from  the  furniture  of  the  Louis  Treize.  Some  of  the  tables,  for  instance, 
are  identical ;  and  although  they  may  not  range,  indeed,  under  the  actual 
head  of  the  modern  Queen  Anne,  yet  they  consort  with  it  perfectly,  and 
certain  of  the  chairs  have  but  slight  variation  from  the  lines  of  pure  Ital- 
ian models. 

Some  among  the  manufacturers,  in  introducing  novelties,  are  combin- 
ing the  Queen  Anne  with  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  ornaments  in  cabi- 
nets, etageres,  bedsteads,  and  other  pieces,  and  are  congratulating  them- 
selves on  their  inventiveness.  It  is  an  inventiveness,  however,  as  old  as 
Chippendale  himself,  as  he  has  given  numerous  illustrations  of  articles 
where  he  had  already  done  the  same  thing.  China  had  been  largely  an 
unknown  land  to  the  rest  of  the  world  until  shortly  before  that  cabinet- 
maker's day.  Tea,  to  be  sure,  had  been  introduced  some  half-century  pre- 
vious, but  a  shadowy  knowledge  of  the  customs  of  the  country  was  but 
just  entering  the  English  ports  with  its  porcelains,  its  bamboos,  carved 
ivories,  and  lacquered  trays.  Its  curiosities  took  the  fancy.  Chinese  pa- 
per-hangings were  everywhere.   Whole  rooms  were  furnished  in  what  was 


Queen  Anue  Cabinet. 


THE  QUEEN  ANNE. 


150 


called  the  Chinese  fashion,  Sir  William  Chambers  publishing  several  plates 
to  that  effect,  and  hints  from  it  thus  came  to  be  introduced  into  almost  all 
the  work  of  the  day,  sparingly  and  delicately,  but  quite  pointedly  enough 
to  be  recognized.  The  love  of  tea — the  fashion  of  drinking  it,  at  any  rate 
— together  with  the  influence  of  Queen  Mary,  the  predecessor  of  Queen 
Anne,  had  brought  in  a  great  passion  for  china  at  that  time  too,  and  chiefly 
in  the  grotesque  forms  that  had  first  struck  the  Dutch  fancy  and  been  im- 
ported into  Holland.  "  In  every  corner  of  the  mansion,"  says  Macaulay, 
"  appeared  a  profusion  of  gewgaws  not  yet  familiar  to  English  eyes.  Mary 
had  acquired  at  the  Hague  a  taste  for  the  porcelain  of  China,  and  amused 
herself  by  forming  at  Hampton  a  vast  collection  of  hideous  images,  and  of 

vases  on  wThich  houses,  

trees,  bridges,  and  man- 
darins were  depicted  in 
outrageous  defiance  of 
all  the  laws  of  perspec- 
tive. The  fashion  —  a 
frivolous  and  inelegant 
fashion,  it  must  be  own- 
ed— which  wTas  thus  set 
by  the  queen  spread  far 
and  wide.  In  a  few 
years  almost  every  great 
house  in  the  kingdom 
contained  a  museum  of 
these  grotesque  baubles. 
Even  statesmen  and  gen- 
erals were  not  ashamed 
to  be  renowned  as  judges 
of  teapots  and  dragons ; 
and  satirists  long  contin- 
ued to  repeat  that  a  fine 
lady  valued  her  mottled 
green  pottery  quite  as 
much  as  she  valued  her 
monkey,  and  much  more 
than  she  valued  her  hus- 
band." Nevertheless,  a 
piece  of  fine  pottery  is  capable  of  containing  infinitely  finer  and  better 
art  than  many  a  coarser  and  larger  object  which  the  satirist  would  not 
dare  to  despise. 


Another  Queen  Anue  Cabinet. 


100 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


The  influence  which  this  love  of  china  had  upon  the  forms  of  the 
Queen  Anne  furniture  is  very  noticeable — in  the  mahogany  tea-trays  and 
the  tiny  tables  for  pouring  out  tea  and  for  holding  the  cup  and  saucer, 
with  a  standing  rim  round  them  like  that  of  the  old  abacus,  the  rim  some- 
times plain,  sometimes  cut  in  an  open-work  of  the  Chinese  filigree ;  and  in 
the  great  accommodation  for  its  display  also  presented  by  every  article — 
the  open  shelves  and  cupboards  without  glass  that  ran  up  the  sides  of  buf- 
fets and  mantel-pieces,  the  finely  glazed  receptacles  in  the  same  articles  for 
more  precious  bits,  and  in  the  hanging  wall-cabinets,  where  the  beauty  was 
displayed  on  a  smaller  scale.  Old  china  is  thus  an  essential  accompani- 
ment of  the  Queen  Anne  upon  shelf  and  mantel,  table  and  bracket,  and 
adds  to  it  a  brightness  and  color  that  it  perhaps  needs,  and  which  it  takes 
better  extraneously  than  in  its  own  construction. 

We  are  shown  by  dealers  many  minor  articles  and  some  miscellaneous 
bric-a-brac  which  they  classify  as  Queen  Anne,  although  not  always  with 
any  better  reason  than  that  it  harmonizes  with  that  style.  Among  these 
are  some  wonderful  mirrors  made  by  the  Adam  brothers,  who  did  not 
live,  however,  till  a  generation  after  Queen  Anne. 

The  Queen  Anne  style,  in  its  present  modification,  is,  upon  the  whole, 
utterly  destitute  of  any  sort  of  affectation.  Without  the  grandiosity  of 
the  Gothic  or  the  intricate  art  of  the  pure  Renaissance,  it  has  attained  a 
dignity  and  beauty  proper  to  the  age,  and  seems  to  be  the  very  style  to 
reward  the  search  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  something  natural,  beau- 
tiful, suitable,  and  convenient. 


ORIENTAL  STYLES. 


101 


XXV. 

ORIENTAL  STYLES. 

IN  the  present  passion  of  the  polite  world  for  the  art  of  the  Orient — - 
the  revival  of  an  old  passion — and  in  the  recognition  of  certain  super 
nal  virtues  that  this  art  possesses  amidst  much  that  is  barbaric  and  gro- 
tesque, it  may  be  interesting  to  take  note  of  a  few  of  the  peculiarities  of 
the  furniture  of  that  meridian,  no  article  of  which  is  without  marked  char- 
acter of  some  sort,  whether  commendable  or  otherwise,  while  many  arti- 
cles are  unrivalled  for  value  and  beauty. 

Ever  since  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  whose  young  Southern  wife  brought 
into  England  with  her  several  interesting  Indian  cabinets,  the  workman- 
ship of  the  East  has  been  held  in  consideration,  although  there  are  few 
who  would  desire  to  furnish  in  either  the  Chinese  or  Japanese  styles  any- 
thing more  than  a  smoking-room  or  a  cabinet  of  curiosities.  Furniture  in 
the  East  Indian  style  is,  however,  both  beautiful  and  comfortable  enough 
to  be  used  throughout  a  house  if  chosen  either  in  the  light  bamboos,  in 
the  satin-wood  inlaid  with  the  Bombay -work  in  its  mosaic  of  minutest 
cubes,  in  the  black  wood  carved  in  a  charming  open  filigree  to  the  last 
fraction  of  an  inch,  the  table-tops  and  flat  plain  surfaces  upheld  by  storks 
with  their  long  bent  necks,  the  chair  backs  and  other  upright  surfaces  a 
mass  of  indicated  floriage,  or  in  the  very  differently  carved  teak -wood, 
with  its  blackness  just  tinged  by  the  deepest  half-dreamed  crimson  shadow, 
and  in  which  the  great  pedestals  have  elephantine  outlines  with  vast  coils 
and  involutions,  half  like  the  monstrous  members  of  huge  idols,  half  like 
the  flowers  of  a  nightmare. 

In  the  Queen  Anne  and  Georgian  period,  in  spite  of  the  acknowledged 
rights  of  the  heavy  Classics,  the  Chinese  style  became  a  fashion.  Suites 
of  rooms  were  furnished  in  it,  plates  being  published  for  the  instruction 
of  furnishers,  and  picturesque  results  were  obtained,  although  we  flatter 
ourselves  that  we  can  now  obtain  finer ;  and  without  doubt  our  better  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Eastern  countries,  the  farther  depth  to  which  we 
have  penetrated  them,  and  the  richer  acquisitions  that  we  have  amassed 
from  their  artistic  treasures,  enable  us  to  present  a  completer  picture. 
Yet  to  eyes  accustomed  to  the  Gothic  and  the  Grecian,  the  Chinese  and 

11 


162 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Japanese  will,  it  may  be,  seem  always  more  or  less  fantastic,  in  spite  of 
the  naturalness  and  spirit  of  their  design,  the  richness  of  their  color,  and 
the  usual  fitness  of  their  articles ;  and  we  can  hardly  imagine  a  thorough 
home  feeling  accompanying  the  rooms  arranged  in  that  style,  except  for 
the  very  young  and  gay,  and  for  those  cosmopolitan  people  who  are  able 
to  feel  at  home  anywhere. 

One  of  the  chief  differences  now  between  Chinese  and  Japanese  arti- 
cles is  that  the  homogeneity  of  the  Japanese  has  not  yet  been  injured  by 
European  demands;  and  in  buying  a  Japanese  article  we  are  tolerably 
sure  of  getting  something  according  to  the  aboriginal  idea,  and  not  accord- 
ing to  the  idea  of  what  the  European  taste  of  the  purchaser  may  require. 
The  Chinese  have  long  since  crystallized  into  deadness  of  repetition  with- 
out a  new  form  of  fancy,  while  the  Japanese  constantly  overflow  with 
freshness  and  redundant  life.  Part  of  this  is  owing  to  the  seclusion  in 
which  the  Japanese  have  lived  till  now,  and  part  to  the  fact  that  the  Jap- 
anese artisan,  as  well  as  the  artist,  as  a  creator,  takes  a  social  precedence 
over  the  merchant,  and  possibly  still  more  to  the  interest  taken  in  it  by 
those  of  the  best  culture  and  opportunities  among  them.  "  Not  only  did 
the  Japanese  nobles  thus  sustain  art,"  as  the  author  of  "A  Glimpse  at  the 
Art  of  Japan "  tells  us,  "  but  they  further  made  it  fashionable  by  their 
personal  knowledge  and  practice.  The  most  exquisite  bit  of  inlaid  ivory 
lacquer -work  we  have  ever  seen,  a  cabinet  with  lovely  compositions  of 
birds  and  insects  and  scenery  in  the  panels,  is  said  to  be  the  joint  work  of 
several  princes,  brothers,  who  lived  two  centuries  ago,  and  was  kept  as  an 
heirloom  until  it  fell  into  profane  hands  during  the  recent  civil  war." 

Every  article  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  furniture  is  ornamented,  and  a 
distinctive  feature  of  the  ornament  is  attained  in  a  manner  different  from 
any  that  Western  art  would  use  to  attain  a  similar  end.  To  the  un- 
trained eye  this  ornament  would  seem  as  utterly  without  symmetry  as 
the  most  uncouth  contortions  of  the  Rococo ;  but,  to  the  eye  accustomed 
to  it,  it  will  be  seen  that,  however  diverse  the  parts,  however  irregular 
the  divisions  and  masses,  however  varied  the  outlines  and  representations, 
however  decidedly  avoided  all  repetitions  and  duplicates,  still  the  parts 
are  completely  balanced  as  a  whole,  and  one  mass  constantly  offsets  and 
complements  another.  This  is  visible  in  the  designs  drawn  and  colored 
or  gilded  on  any  screen,  table,  casket,  or  other  object.  Occasionally,  in- 
deed, it  uses  the  sacred  fret  and  the  zigzag  and  the  diaper,  which  both 
East  and  West  probably  derived  from  the  same  source,  but  not  witli 
much  relish  or  spontaneity.  Those  forms  represent  a  symmetry  without 
life,  and  the  Oriental  artists  prefer  their  own  more  vital  equipoise.  In 
their  ornament  they  freely  use  scenes  from  their  national,  domestic,  and 


ORIENTAL  STYLES. 


16^ 


spiritual  life,  together  with  vivid  likenesses  of  natural  objects,  never  stop- 
ping to  be  faithful  in  detail,  but  never  failing  to  give  the  absolute  in- 
tention and  signification,  half  a  dozen  free  strokes  doing  the  work  of 
half  a  hundred,  using  the  richest  colors  boldly  and  marvellously,  and  al- 
ways harmoniously,  and  never  sparing  gold,  from  the  dullest  flatness  to 
the  most  burnished  brilliancy,  in  lines  and  dots  and  smooth  surfaces,  in 
clouds,  in  blossoms,  and  in  backgrounds,  on  their  thick  leathery  wall-pa- 
pers or  on  their  wonderful  lacquers.  The  old  lacquers,  we  will  say  in 
passing,  it  is  impossible  to  rival  now;  and  it  is  an  odd  coincidence  that 
the  most  thriving  period  of  both  Japanese  and  Chinese  art  was  one  ex- 
actly corresponding  to  the  best  of  the  European  Renaissance  —  from  the 
latter  portion  of  the  fourteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
— as  if  the  whole  human  race  at  that  time  felt  one  universal  throb  and 
impulse  forward. 

A  superiority  to  be  found  in  the  furniture  designed  and  ornamented 
by  these  Oriental  artists  is  its  mechanical  perfection.  Every  part  fits,  and 
fits  exactly,  and  every  detail  of  it  shows  the  power  of  the  living  thought 
animating  the  workman's  sensitive  fingers,  rather  than  the  dead  indiffer- 
ence and  stolidity  of  the  steam-driven  machine.  Yet  convenience  is  not 
the  designer's  first  aim  in  any  article  of  the  sort.  He  first  endeavors  to 
please  the  eye,  to  surround  the  owner  with  what  he  considers  beauty ; 
afterward  to  adapt  the  beauty  to  use.  Nevertheless,  the  adaptation  may 
be  called  perfect,  for  all  mechanicians  acknowledge  the  completeness  of 
the  objects  he  manufactures,  whether  bronze,  leather,  lacquer,  paper,  or  por- 
celain, just  as  every  artist  acknowledges  the  harmonies  of  their  color  and 
the  vivid  action  of  their  ideas.  The  Japanese  designer,  indeed,  cannot 
touch  the  commonest  object  without  leaving  there  some  trace  of  beauty, 
as  witness  this  description  of  an  iron  tea-kettle :  "  Compact,  strong,  handy 
for  daily  use,  rough  of  general  aspect  and  texture  of  metal,  but  bearing 
aloft  a  silver  and  gold  inlaid  handle,  with  dainty  sprigs  of  early  vegeta- 
tion, while  the  solid  sides  show  in  lowest  relief,  as  fine  in  outline  and  cut- 
ting as  Greek  gems,  water  plants  and  birds,  with  every  minute  organic 
detail  exquisitely  finished,  the  latter  looking  quite  alive,  and  ready  to  step 
out  of  their  atmosphere  of  metal  into  our  breathable  ether.  The  sense  of 
animated  life  is,  indeed,  so  strong  in  the  birds  and  the  plants  that  one  ban- 
ishes forever  any  idea  of  a  base  use  of  the  tea-kettle,  and  consigns  it  to 
the  companionship  of  the  finest  art,  royally  knighted  at  the  sovereign 
hands  of  beauty." 

The  objects  of  this  class  of  furniture  are  not  many,  for  a  great  deal  of 
furniture  is  not  demanded  by  the  habits  of  simple  and  natural  peoples. 
"  Clean  mats  for  beds  and  seats,"  as  Mr.  Jarves  tells  us  of  the  Japanese, 


164 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


"  a  few  wooden  pillows  prodigiously  uncomfortable,  a  portable  stove,  a 
score  or  more  of  lacquer  and  porcelain  dishes,  perhaps  a  pretty  cabinet  to 
hold  writing  and  drawing  materials  and  their  few  small  objects  of  art,  a 
musical  instrument  or  two,  and  as  many  screen  paintings ;  these  quite  suf- 
fice a  young  couple's  wants,  and,  as  for  this  matter,  an  old  one's  too.  In- 
stead of  costly  framed  landscapes  hung  on  their  walls,  the  nobles  make 
their  rooms — scrupulously  clean,  airy,  and  spacious,  with  movable  divisions 
or  screens,  which  can  be  so  arranged  as  to  leave  open,  as  if  enclosed  in 
frames  —  attractive  vistas  of  ont-door  scenery.  Often  the  screens  them- 
selves are  made  of  the  finest  material,  and  either  elaborately  worked  in 
gold  and  silk,  or  richly  painted  with  landscapes  and  scenes  from  national 
myths  and  history,  or  curious  and  capricious  devices  so  aesthetically  ingen- 
ious as  to  afford  an  endless  entertainment  to  the  eye,  and  which  are  as 
readily  shifted  as  the  scenes  of  a  theatre." 

It  is  hardly  possible  in  this  climate  to  furnish  any  apartments  warmed 
by  stove  or  furnace  after  either  the  Chinese  or  Japanese  method.  The 
original  articles  of  cost  and  beauty  are  made  in  and  for  a  soft  and  equable 
temperature,  without  violent  extremes  either  of  frost  or  heat.  Our  fur- 
nace-heated houses  are  deadly  to  them  ;  and  many  a  beautiful  cabinet  with 
its  imperishably  lacquered  panels,  many  a  most  curiously  carved  piece  of 
work,  has  fallen  irretrievably  apart  over  here,  warped  and  dried  and 
shrunken  by  the  alien  air.  The  intricate  carving  of  the  work,  by-the-way, 
is  almost  as  much  a  marvel  as  if  it  were  an  illusion  of  legerdemain,  scenes 
in  perspective  being  cut  there  such  as  those  where  we  have  seen  the 
blades  of  the  rank  jungle  grass,  and  their  very  awns,  minutely  finished  as 
the  plunging  horses  and  their  riders  and  the  leaping  tigers  were  freely 
fashioned,  with  the  runners  and  the  dogs,  the  infuriated  elephant,  and  the 
dense  thickness  of  reeds  and  palms  and  trembling  flowers. 

But  for  light  balconied  summer  rooms  and  well-built  dry  garden  pavil- 
ions the  Chinese  and  Japanese  forms  are  quite  suitable,  the  styles  of  either 
nation  being  sufficiently  similar  to  mingle  wherever  one  may  help  out  the 
other.  There,  then,  mats  will  partly  cover  the  porcelain  tiles  of  the  floor; 
numerous  tables  hardly  larger  than  would  answer  the  purposes  of  a  cup 
and  saucer  of  the  delicate  egg-shell  ware,  or,  at  most,  a  tiny  tea-service, 
that  would  hold  a  pair  of  pipes,  or  a  fantastic  flower-pot  with  its  dwarfed 
tree,  or  a  lute  or  its  substitute,  will  stand  about  the  place ;  there  will  be  a 
moderate -sized  cabinet,  carved  and  lacquered,  and  perhaps  lifted  on  long 
slender  legs  borrowed  from  some  piece  sent  out  to  China  for  decoration 
in  the  days  of  Louis  Quinze,  and  on  the  cabinet  will  be  bits  of  rare 
ware,  or  their  imitations,  the  old  sea-green  celadon,  the  imperial  ruby,  and 
the  turquoise,  a  green  dragon  cup,  a  blue-and-white  Nankin  dish,  and  cam 


ORIENTAL  STYLES. 


165 


delabra,  possibly,  chiselled  from  the  pellucid  jade,  with  the  tints  running 
through  it  from  deep  translucent  olivine  to  palest  cream ;  there  will  be 
hanging  cabinets  upon  the  walls,  besides,  of  the  sort  from  which  Chippen- 
dale appears  to  have  adapted  many,  with  porcelains  or  with  little  polished 
steel  mirrors  ornamenting  them  ;  and  there  will  be  long  and  narrow  silken 
scrolls  stretched  on  rollers  and  hanging  here  and  there  between,  painted 
or  embroidered  with  their  brilliant  pictures,  perhaps  the  battle  of  the 
storks  in  all  the  gray  and  black  swirl  of  their  feathers  and  fury,  or  else 
just  a  mere  handful  of  blazing  birds  and  boughs  and  blossoms  all  tossing 
in  the  wind  together ;  or  if  the  silken  scroll  is  not  to  be  had,  then  those 
of  the  paper,  which  is  as  stout  as  leather,  will  replace  it — paper  which  the 
makers  of  many  fine  pieces  of  English  furniture  use  to  line  and  display 
the  curved  recesses  of  their  cabinets  and  sideboards,  although  not  orna- 
mented then  with  the  pictorial  scene,  but  simply  diapered  with  gold  and 
flowers.  Chairs,  too,  of  many  sorts  are  to  be  had  for  this  room,  the  most 
of  them  bamboo  and  rattan — the  long  low  extension-chair  with  its  square 
outlines,  the  deep  Sleepy  Hollow  wicker,  and  the  arm-chair  all  of  whose 
frame  is  composed  of  slanting  groups  of  short  rattans  upheld  by  longer 
single  ones  of  an  opposing  slant,  black-lacquered  and  gilt  in  odd  minglings 
of  alphabetical  characters  and  traceries ;  and  chairs  also  of  a  heavier  char- 
acter, surmounted  by  the  dragon's  crest,  that  seem  like  demoniac  old  gods 
opening  their  arms  to  receive  you.  Sandal -wood  desks  will  enrich  the 
room ;  trinkets  of  cunningly  carved  ivory ;  half-open  fans  giving  dashes 
of  deep  color ;  albums  of  paintings  that  open  and  stretch  out  their  con- 
tents, not  page  by  page,  but  in  one  long  unfolding  extension  of  gay  tints 
and  lively  scenes;  odd  little  bronzes,  where  every  wrinkle  of  the  creature's 
skin,  every  plumule  of  the  bird's  feathers,  is  imitated,  or  huge  ones  in  vases 
that  are  idols,  and  in  great  storks  overtojming  your  head ;  and  everywhere 
that  space  offers  specimens  of  porcelain  and  pottery,  the  little  teapots  of 
the  Satsuma  crackle,  light  as  if  made  of  paper;  the  platters  of  Kiyoto  ware 
hanging  from  hooks  on  the  wall,  with  their  coral  and  creamy  tints ;  the 
immense  high -shouldered  Jeddo  jars  carrying  their  relief  of  blooming 
branches  and  cloudy  gold.  Screens,  too,  can  add  their  charm  to  such  a 
room :  one,  a  single  sheet  set  in  the  black  frame  carved  serpent-wise  from 
teak,  and  on  the  crape  enclosed,  "like  wrinkled  skins  of  scalded  milk,"  the 
peacock  will  be  wrought  in  all  his  matchless  colors,  the  scarlet  flamingo, 
the  pheasant,  or  the  golden-crested  cockatoo ;  or  else  a  loftier  one  without 
frame  or  setting,  opening  in  valves,  leaf  after  leaf  covered  with  lavish  pic- 
torial work,  recessing  the  room,  and  making  something  like  a  new  wall 
surface  for  the  display  of  further  beauty  and  lustre.  And  if,  finally,  there 
are  to  be  had  the  light-textured  silken  and  satin  draperies  of  the  Flowery 


100 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Kingdom,  or  chintzes  resembling  them,  covered  with  quaint  impossible 
blossoms  and  birds  floating  in  their  glowing  dyes  upon  a  soft  background, 
it  will  be  confessed  that  as  bright  and  gay  a  surrounding  as  youth  and 
happiness  can  desire  on  summer  days  will  be  found  in  these  light  and  open 
rooms  furnished  in  the  Chinese  or  the  Japanese  style,  all  of  whose  glit- 
tering tints  can  be  arranged  so  harmoniously  as  to  blend  into  a  charming 
whole. 


MODERN  FURNITURE. 


167 


XXVI. 

MODERN  FURNITURE. 

THE  nineteenth  century  is,  without  doubt,  a  great  one  in  many  ways: 
wonderful  in  adventure,  in  discovery,  in  invention ;  tremendous  in 
mechanics ;  accomplished  in  the  literature  of  poetry,  fiction,  history ;  do- 
ing more  for  science  than  has  been  done  since  Roger  Bacon's  day,  achiev- 
ing something  in  sculpture,  as  witness  Story's  work  and  that  of  others, 
and  much  in  painting,  as  witness  Turner.  But  all  this  is,  in  a  manner, 
external.  It  is  out-door  work  for  the  universal  race,  and  hardly  at  all  on 
the  domestic  and  individual  side ;  and  it  is  not  a  little  singular  that  in  the 
more  personal  service  of  architecture  and  the  kindred  art  of  furniture 
design  it  should  do  nothing  but  revive  that  which  has  been  done  before. 

Modern  furniture  —  to  leave  architecture  out  of  the  case  —  in  one  of 
its  phases  has  revived  the  Gothic,  although  until  very  recently  with  in- 
sufficient knowledge,  lacking  also  the  spirit  and  honesty  that  actuated 
the  ancient  forms,  imitating  without  the  inspiration  of  the  necessity  that 
produced  the  original.  In  another  phase  modern  furniture  has  used  the 
Renaissance,  but,  except  where  furnishing  for  princes,  robbed  of  half  its 
splendor  ;  and  it  has  finally  selected  from  all  styles,  with  the  old  English 
always  in  mind  in  the  Eastlake,  and  with  a  charming  mongrel  revivified 
in  the  Queen  Anne.  It  has  adopted  also  the  Moorish  and  the  Pompeian 
and  the  Oriental  styles,  upon  occasion,  but  it  has  invented  nothing  new. 
It  seems  as  if  the  modern  designers  felt  that  what  had  already  been  ac- 
complished was  equal  to  the  emergency ;  that  it  was  best,  perhaps,  to  di- 
gest the  past  thoroughly,  and  when  that  was  well  done,  something  in  this 
transition  age  might  be  evolved  from  it  of  a  novel  nature  ;  and  that,  at 
any  rate  till  a  new  architecture  should  arise,  the  new  furniture  which 
must  follow  it  could  wait. 

There  is  certainly  in  modern  furniture  an  immense  variety  to  choose 
from  —  the  picturesque  mediasval  articles  with  their  pointed  arches  and 
vertical  lines,  the  magnificent  Renaissance  ones  covered  with  carvings 
that  take  light  and  shade  like  bosses  of  metal-work,  the  luxurious  light 
and  lustre  of  the  articles  of  the  Quatorze  with  their  gilding  and  their  in- 
lay, and  all  the  fantasticism  of  the  styles  of  the  Asiatic  races.    One  might 


168 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


well  be  so  satisfied  with  all  this  as  to  demand  no  more ;  and,  indeed,  the 
demand  for  more  which  is  now  and  then  made  is  principally  from  those 
who  are  ignorant  of  what  we  really  possess  already,  and  who  are  led  to 
make  the  demand  in  view  of  the  slight  and  superficial  structure  with 
which  upholsterers  are  too  apt  to  meet  the  popular  desire  for  cheapness. 

The  dissemination  of  money  among  many,  where  formerly  it  was  cen- 
tred among  few,  has  put  it  within  the  power  of  the  million  to  make  the 
home  attractive,  and  till  it,  for  furniture,  with  objects  that  it  gives  pleas- 
ure to  look  at.  But,  notwithstanding,  there  is  not  money  enough  with 
each  householder  of  the  million  to  have  that  furniture  of  the  best  of 
whatever  style  he  chooses  among  the  existing  ones.  He  wants  beauty 
and  he  wants  cheapness,  and  the  upholsterer  allows  him  a  degree  of  both, 
but  solidity  and  durability  do  not  enter  into  the  bargain.  Perhaps  the 
purchaser  does  not  greatly  care  for  either.  lie  is  not  attempting  to  fur- 
nish for  posterity ;  the  things  will  last  out  his  lifetime,  he  reckons,  and 
posterity  may  furnish  for  itself.  Nor,  as  a  general  thing,  does  he  care  for 
purity  of  style.  Handsome  woods  and  handsome  material  are  ordinarily 
much  more  to  him  than  any  shape ;  his  pronounced  fancy  is  for  novelty, 
and  if  that  is  obtained  by  Gothic  arches  topping  Grecian  columns,  it 
makes  small  odds  to  him. 

As  a  rule,  it  is  the  purchaser  that  makes  the  market.  Whatever  there 
is  that  may  be  wanted,  there  is  some  one  that  tries  to  produce  it.  If 
the  purchaser  wants  French  maple  and  satin  damask,  ebony  and  gilding,  or 
their  imitations,  it  is  for  somebody's  interest  that  he  shall  have  it,  and  no 
one  will  disregard  the  economy  of  things  so  far  as  to  throw  in  any  large 
amount  of  careful  and  unrequited  discrimination  as  to  outlines,  curves, 
character,  and  expression  of  members,  origin  of  parts,  or  preservation  of 
style.  The  purchaser  gets  what  he  requires,  the  thing  that  pleases  him,  as 
much  beauty  as  he  is  acquainted  with  or  can  afford,  and  as  cheaply  as  it 
can  be  given  and  a  margin  of  profit  retained ;  and  if  great  and  real  beauty 
is  not  the  result  of  his  bargain,  and  does  not  fill  the  houses  of  the  million, 
it  is  not  the  upholsterers,  but  the  public,  who  are  to  be  censured  and  in- 
structed. There  are,  indeed,  upholsterers  who  refuse  to  sell  to  the  mill- 
ion, and  who  will  not  make  their  articles  such  as  the  million  can  afford  to 
buy.  In  obedience  to  our  democratic  instincts,  we  reproach  them ;  but  it 
is  to  such  as  they  that  the  art  of  ebenisterie  will  owe  its  preservation. 

Until  recently,  whenever  any  one  spoke  of  modern  furniture,  two  or 
three  variations  instantly  offered  themselves  to  the  eye,  neither  of  them  of 
nobility  or  of  true  beauty :  one,  a  faint  and  feeble  representation  of  the 
splendor  of  the  Quatorze,  with  sprawling  spindling  legs  and  arms,  cush- 
ioned and  tufted  and  sufficiently  luxurious,  with  boule-work  and  ormolu, 


MODERN  FURNITURE. 


169 


overlaid  with  gilding  and  underlaid  with  crimson  mottling,  losing  the 
intention  of  the  style,  and  reaching  little  but  the  vulgarity  inevitable 
without  that ;  another,  yet  more  comfortable,  but  not  to  be  spoken  of  in 
reference  to  beauty  at  all,  other  than  as  one  would  speak  of  any  assem- 
blage of  cushions,  the  stuffed  and  puffed  and  tufted  chairs  and  sofas  where 
no  wood -work  whatever  was  visible,  the  outlines  scarcely  more  than  those 
of  well-filled  cushions  shaped  by  the  form  and  attitude  of  the  sitter ;  still 
another  presented  series  of  padded  panels  of  any  odd  shape  apparently 
that  happened  to  be  handy  to  the  maker,  connected  by  bars  either  plain 
or  turned,  stiff  and  awkward  to  the  last  degree ;  and  there  were  others 
with  wood -work  at  the  top,  where  the  broken  triangular  forms  appeared, 
styled  Renaissance  by  virtue  of  those  forms  and  of  the  cachet  of  some 
shield  and  scroll  glued  on  at  the  corners.  Variations  and  minglings  of  all 
these,  interspersed  with  hints  of  oth- 
ers, we  find  as  the  staple  of  modern 
furniture,  and  they  are  what  the  pub- 
lic has  asked  for.  By  the  public  we 
would  say  the  body  of  buyers  with 
limited  means,  for  of  course  there  are 
always  the  princely  purses  —  few  in 
comparison,  however  frequently  found 
in  the  great  cities — to  command  finer 
objects  ;  and  there  are  always  an  ex- 
ceptional few,  besides,  who  furnish  ar- 
tistically and  with  intelligence  in  the 
style  that  has  struck  the  answering 
chord  of  their  fancy,  these  in  the  per- 
pendicular Gothic,  those  in  the  Eliza- 
bethan, others  in  the  superb  radiance 
and  richness  of  the  Pompeian.  But 

for  SUch  buyers  the  furniture  is  made   chair  of  the  Time  of  Charles  IT.,  owned  later  by 

to  order.  It  would  ruin  any  upholster-  Hoiace  Walpole' 

er  to  keep  articles  of  the  description  they  require  in  stock.  Other  buy- 
ers, unable  to  meet  the  expense  of  ordering  articles  manufactured,  but,  in 
disgust  at  the  flimsy  and  characterless  things  offered  them,  have  gone  back 
to  what  is  indefinitely  known  as  the  "  old-fashioned,"  reaching  accidentally 
very  much  the  same  thing  that  the  English  artists  have  reverted  to  upon 
selection;  and  every  farm-house  of  any  age  along  the  country-side  has 
been  ransacked  for  its  ancient  furniture,  a  hundred  years  old  in  the  manu- 
facture frequently,  two  hundred  years  old  in  the  design.  Large  quantities 
of  this  old-fashioned  furniture  have  turned  up  in  excellent  repair,  and 


170 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Chair  of  the  Time  of  William  III. 


many  of  the  articles  carrying  in  their  brass -work,  their  carved -work,  and 
inscriptions  patriotic  insignia  of  the  Eevolution — inscriptions  abounding 

on  much  of  the  old  china.  We  will 
often  find  a  whole  house  furnished,  to 
the  despair  of  the  upholsterer,  in  this 
dark  and  quaint  old  stuff,  illumined 
with  its  wrought  brass,  its  delicate  carv- 
ing, and  its  satisfactory  moulding  ;  cu- 
rious desks  full  of  hidden  places,  charm- 
ing chairs,  claw-footed  loo  tables,  and 
old  "four-posters,"  sculptured  with 
fine  peculiar  foliage  after  a  modified 
Elizabethan. 

The  cabinet-makers  and  furnishers  of 
to-day  are  as  capable  of  producing  no- 
ble objects  as  those  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury were.  They  have  better  woods, 
better  appliances,  the  best  old  models, 
and  steam  to  help  them  in  the  rude  blocking -out.  But  glue  has  been 
their  undoing;  and  they  have  learned  to  rely  on  this  fatal  steam  till  it 
has  nearly  abolished  the  individuality  of  the  workman  and  the  life  of  the 
work.  Fortunately  attention  has  been  directed  to  this  tendency  in  sea- 
son to  prevent  the  loss  of  the  superior  traditions  of  the  trade;  and  wTith 
plates  existing  of  the  best  designs,  in  the  satisfying  excellence  of  the  old 
Gothic,  and  of  the  early  Renaissance  whose  merit  is  acknowledged  by  all 
but  a  few  fanatics  of  the  other,  the  art  of  furniture-making  can  go  for- 
ward with  the  charm  of  the  old  design  and 
the  opportunities  of  the  new  workmanship. 
Artists  have  taken  the  matter  in  hand,  not 
as  a  personal  and  private  thing  of  their  own 
hearths,  but  as  a  business.  Under  their 
oversight,  the  honesty  of  carpentry  has  su- 
perseded the  sleight  of  hand  of  cabinet-mak- 
ing; house-decorators  have  formed  them- 
selves into  firms,  giving  their  attention  to 
the  preparation  of  interiors  from  the  mo- 
ment the  plasterer  is  done  with  them ;  an- 
cient houses  are  studied  in  all  their  appoint- 
ments from  roof  to  cellar ;  ideas  are  harvested  and  applied ;  and  beauty, 
led  by  all  the  increased  intelligence  of  the  era,  is  becoming  the  trade-mark 
of  modern  furniture. 


Chair  in  Pepys's  Library. 


CARPETS. 


171 


XXVII. 

CARPETS. 

AFTER  the  appearance  of  the  hall,  the  carpets  give  the  first  impression 
of  the  house  to  the  person  who  enters,  and  they  afford  constant  and 
countless  sensations  to  the  person  who  stays  —  unconscious  sensations  of 
comfort,  if  they  are  suitable ;  very  conscious  and  continual  ones  of  discom- 
fort and  annoyance,  if  they  are  inharmonious,  glaring,  and  self-asserting. 

The  carpet  is  to  the  room  exactly  what  the  background  is  to  the  pict- 
ure :  it  throws  up  the  whole  effect,  the  main  features  and  their  sugges- 
tions, and  is  content  with  that  part.  The  moment  it  makes  itself  obtru- 
sive or  in  the  least  degree  noticeable,  it  becomes  vulgar  and  disagreeable. 
It  should,  indeed,  be  such  that  one  forgets  to  observe  it,  or  if  caused  to 
do  so  by  any  accident,  finds  its  perfection  and  quiet  beauty  with  a  little 
pleased  surprise.  What  is  usually  called  the  quality  of  the  carpet  is  of  no 
sort  of  consequence  in  comparison  to  these  qualities,  although  the  want  of 
harmony  could  hardly  fail  to  be  felt  if  a  rich  tapestry  were  laid  upon  the 
floor  of  an  inferior  little  room  with  shabby  walls  and  cheap  chairs,  or  if 
a  common  ingrain  were  stretched  upon  the  floor  of  a  drawing-room  with 
inlaid  walls,  boule  cabinets,  Venetian  mirrors,  and  gilt  sofas.  It  goes 
without  saying,  of  course,  that  the  unities  in  this  regard  are  just  as  much 
to  be  preserved  in  the  furnishing  of  a  room  as  in  the  composition  of  a 
drama  or  any  other  work  of  art,  and  not  unity  of  style  so  much  as  of  char- 
acter :  the  room  makes  its  toilet ;  and  we  should  think  but  poorly  of  the 
lady's  taste  who,  with  her  trailing  satins  and  her  jewels,  wore  calf-skin 
brogans  and  cotton  gloves. 

The  color  of  the  carpet  should  always  be  chosen  in  relation  to  the  gen- 
eral design  of  the  room.  To  secure  a  thoroughly  pictorial  effect  to  the 
eye  as  a  whole,  and  a  comfortable  one  to  the  senses,  the  carpet,  a  little 
darker  than  other  portions,  should  present  the  main  body  tint  from  which 
the  rest  of  the  room  works  up  in  lighter  tints,  unless  strong  contrasts 
rather  than  blending  shades  are  desired. 

The  figure,  or  pattern,  of  the  carpet  should  usually  be  small,  and  al- 
ways should  be  treated  conventionally,  or  with  a  near  approach  to  the  con- 
ventional, that  is,  without  the  attempt  at  natural  imitations  of  fruit  and 


172 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


flowers  and  Cupids  and  shells,  but  in  the  suggestions  of  tilings  arranged 
upon  geometrical  base,  better  if  the  repeat  is  not  to  be  traced  at  first 
glance„  If  the  colors  are  well  mingled,  bit  by  bit  will  come  out  in  its 
turn,  and  what  produces  but  a  negative  effect  altogether  will  be  seen  by 
itself  to  be  bright  and  rich  and  tine. 

The  conventional  treatment  of  the  figure  is  the  actuating  principle  of 
the  Persian  and  Indian  carpets;  but  there  are  other  carpets  quite  as  ex- 
pensive, and  by  some  considered  as  beautiful,  such  as  the  Aubusson  tapes- 
tries, which  are  made  upon  precisely  the  opposite  plan.  Beautiful  as  the 
latter  are  as  specimens  of  work,  we  cannot  consider  their  scheme  of  orna- 
ment in  as  good  taste,  to  be  trodden  underfoot  or  to  form  the  foundation 
of  the  feeling  of  the  room,  if  we  may  say  so,  as  the  conventional  plan  of 
the  Oriental  carpets. 

Some  deference  in  the  design  of  the  carpet  should  certainly  be  paid  to 
the  origin  of  the  carpet.  It  came  into  use  in  Christendom  from  Spain, 
carried  to  England  by  a  Spanish  princess,  if  we  except  an  occasional  Per- 
sian rug  used  in  the  churches,  introduced  by  some  travelling  ecclesiastic; 
and  the  Spaniards  had  it,  of  course,  from  the  Moors,  who  had  brought  it 
with  them  as  an  appurtenance  of  their  worship  and  their  comfort  from 
the  East.  Its  natural  design,  then,  would  always  be  the  pure  arabesque : 
no  vines  crawling  over  trellises  with  cherubs'  heads  between,  no  huge 
leaves  sprawling  over  vases,  no  gigantic  and  impossible  roses,  no  antena- 
tal ferns  ;  but  broken  forms,  hints  that  excite  the  powers  of  the  imag- 
ination, but  never  swamp  them  with  bald  fact,  suggestions  of  a  beauty 
greater  than  any  real  beauty  that  we  know,  fresh  combinations  of  old  ele- 
ments. The  religion  of  the  Saracen,  forbidding  the  representation  of  liv- 
ing objects,  vegetable  or  animal,  compelled  him  to  this  sort  of  design  as 
much  on  his  carpets  as  in  all  else  ;  and  although  the  Persian  did  not  always 
adhere  to  this  in  the  ornament  either  of  his  textiles  or  his  potteries,  the 
greater  body  of  the  Mohammedans  never  failed  to  do  so,  and  the  most 
satisfactory  ornament  in  those  districts  of  the  East  Indies  where  art  re- 
ceived any  development  w^as  designed  upon  similar  principles  to  that  upon 
which  Moorish  art  was  developed.  The  colors  of  these  carpets  are  usually 
the  strong  primitive  colors — dark  rich  blues  and  crimsons;  others  have  the 
deep  greens,  some  yellow,  and  creamy  white.  We  say  the  strong  primi- 
tive colors,  because  those  are  what  immediately  strike  our  eye ;  but  we  are 
told  that  the  Orientals  claim  to  use,  both  in  their  carpets  and  their  shawls, 
tints  and  half  tints  that  the  untrained  Western  eye  does  not  perceive  at 
all  unless  in  the  general  result.  However  that  may  be,  the  Western  eye 
does  perceive  the  beauty  of  the  result  obtained  and  the  full  charm  of  the 
combination. 


CARPETS. 


178 


Although  we  would  not  limit  buyers  to  the  colors,  or  to  our  percep- 
tion of  the  colors,  used  by  the  Orientals,  but  would  leave  them  free  to 
avail  themselves  of  all  the  exquisite  new  tints  that  chemistry  can  give  us, 
yet  we  think  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  principle  of  the  design  is  correct, 
and  is  the  one  to  be  followed  by  our  manufacturers,  and  by  those  fur- 
nishers who  would  give  to  their  work  the  most  picturesque  and  pleasing 
combinations,  together  with  that  warm  home  feeling  which  is  absolutely 
essential. 

If  we  followed  the  spirit  of  the  earlier  carpets  to  the  letter,  as  respects 
their  origin  and  their  maimer  of  use  by  the  Orientals,  we  should  always 
remember  that  they  are  rugs,  and  are  to  be  used  as  rugs ;  that,  whatever 
the  size,  they  do  not  quite  till  the  measure  of  the  floor,  but  leave  a  border 
of  the  bare  wood  or  tile  around  their  edge.  This  bare  wood  may  be 
costly,  may  be  inlaid,  or  may  be  merely  painted  and  varnished ;  but  in 
some  variety  or  other  it  is  almost  a  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  real 
India,  Turkey,  and  Persian  carpets  or  mats.  Whenever  the  carpet  covers 
the  entire  floor,  we  should  demand  a  deep  border  for  it,  thus  preserving  still 
to  some  degree  remembrance  of  its  rug-like  character.  Whatever  be  the 
carpet,  the  richest  Axminster  or  the  cheapest  ingrain,  a  border  always  can 
be  found  to  match  it,  and  should  be  used  where  it  is  possible  to  compass 
the  additional  expense,  since  a  carpet  is  as  much  enhanced  by  the  border 
as  a  jewel  is  by  the  setting. 

There  are  many  varieties  now  in  the  manufacture  of  carpets:  the  Au- 
bussons,  the  Wiltons  or  Moquettes,  the  Axminsters,  Brussels  and  tapestry 
Brussels,  Venetians,  and  ingrains  or  Kidderminsters,  not  to  speak  of  the 
felts,  the  druggets  or  booking,  the  hempen,  the  oil-cloth  or  canvas,  and  the 
cocoa-nut  and  grass  mattings,  and  still  others.  Almost  all  the  world  is 
so  familiar  with  these  last  and  cheaper  varieties  that  it  is  hardly  necessary 
to  speak  of  them  at  length :  the  striped  hempen,  used  for  upper  halls  and 
where  little  wear  comes ;  the  Manila  mattings,  used  on  school-rooms  and 
offices  ;  the  drugget,  a  sort  of  coarsely  woven  flannel  stamped  in  a  brilliant 
pattern,  serviceable  as  crumb-cloths ;  the  felt,  of  a  matted  wool,  either  of 
soft  natural  grays  or  printed  in  colors ;  the  canvas  mattings,  made  by  sev- 
eral coats  of  paint  on  a  canvas  foundation — sometimes  on  the  foundation 
of  old  Brussels  carpet  from  which  the  wool  is  thoroughly  worn  away,  an 
imitation  of  which,  by  those  who  cannot  afford  even  this,  is  very  well 
made  by  papering  the  floor  with  newspaper,  over  that  laying  on,  with 
thick  flour  paste,  a  wall-paper  of  decided  pattern,  sizing  it  then  with  com- 
mon glue,  and  varnishing  it  with  common  varnish.  Meanwhile  all  those 
who  wish  for  the  aboriginal  rag-carpet,  woven  of  narrow  strips  of  old  rags, 
endless  balls  of  which  the  housewives  send  to  the  looms,  probably  know 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


how  to  make  it.  The  Venetian  is  nearly  as  old  a  carpet  as  any  we  have ; 
its  pattern  is  in  simple  stripes,  the  woollen  warp  woven  over  woof  of  coarse 
linen  strands.  The  two-ply  ingrain  is  within  the  means  of  almost  every- 
body ;  it  comes  in  exceedingly  neat  designs,  mixed  and  mossy  and  mot- 
tled and  geometrical,  for  those  that  desire  them,  as  well  as  in  exceedingly 
ugly  ones  for  those  that  have  not  learned  the  beauty  of  the  others,  and 
in  a  good  imitation  of  the  best  Brussels  patterns ;  it  usually  turns  well, 
having  a  reverse  of  the  colors  of  the  figure  simply ;  and  put  down  over  a 
carpet -paper  —  a  thin  layer  of  cotton -wool  pressed  between  sheets  of 
brown  paper — is  pleasant  and  comfortable  to  the  foot,  and  endures  a  good 
deal  of  wear.  The  three  -ply,  which  is  very  much  heavier,  wears  still 
longer,  and  is  about  as  serviceable  as  Brussels.  Brussels  is  made  by 
weaving  into  a  linen  body  loops  of  woollen  threads,  three  to  a  loop  cus- 
tomarily ;  as  they  are  dyed  in  the  wool,  the  color  is  almost  ineffaceable. 
Upon  the  so-called  tapestry  Brussels,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pattern  is 
stamped  after  weaving,  and  it  does  not  require  long  use  to  wear  it  off. 
There  are  no  prettier  carpets  than  the  Brussels,  although  others  may  be 
more  luxurious  to  the  foot ;  but  with  the  proper  padding  they  may  be 
made  equally  luxurious,  and  more  durable  than  any.  They  are  a  uni- 
versal sort  of  carpet,  not  too  rich  for  the  poor,  nor  too  poor  for  the  rich ; 
and  the  best  talent,  such  as  that  of  William  Morris  and  Dr.  Dresser,  and, 
indeed,  of  the  owners  of  many  other  distinguished  names,  is  employed 
upon  the  designs,  which  are  softly  illuminated  by  quaintly  blended  colors 
as  brilliant  or  as  subdued  as  the  buyer  pleases.  The  ingrains,  Brussels, 
and  Axminsters  are  all  made  quite  as  good  in  America  as  in  Europe. 
Many  of  the  most  marked  improvements  in  their  manufacture  are 
American. 

The  Moquettes,  the  Axminsters,  and  the  India  and  Turkey  and  Per- 
sian mats  are  all  made  in  a  manner  much  similar  to  that  in  which  the 
Brussels  is  made ;  but  the  loops,  which  in  the  Brussels  are  left  double,  are 
in  these  cut  and  sheared,  making  a  velvety  pile  in  which  the  foot  sinks. 
The  Moquettes  are  finer  and  thinner  than  the  others,  and  consequently 
less  enduring ;  nor  can  they,  after  being  soiled,  be  clipped  and  shorn  off 
again,  and  come  out  freshly  as  good  as  new,  as  the  Turkey  can. 

The  pile  of  the  Axminster  is  exceedingly  thick  and  soft,  and  it  is  thought 
to  exceed  the  Oriental  carpets  in  richness.  It  comes  either  in  breadths  or 
in  whole  pieces  filling  a  floor,  and  is  very  expensive.  At  present  one  of 
the  best,  in  a  piece  that  will  fit  a  small  oblong  drawing-room  of  some 
twenty-four  by  eighteen  feet,  is  sold  for  about  five  hundred  dollars,  al- 
though that  price  is,  of  course,  variable.  Both  Wiltons  and  Axminsters 
are  to  be  had  in  the  India  patterns ;  but  they  are  ordinarily  to  be  seen  in 


CARPETS.  175 

those  floral  designs  whose  coarse  roses  and  lilies  seem  as  if  seen  through  a 
huge  magnifying-glass,  and  which  assume  life  to  be  one  long  wedding  pro- 
cession with  baskets  of  flowers  tossed  beneath  the  feet.  The  same  class 
of  design  is  most  frequently  to  be  seen  in  the  Aubusson  tapestries,  perhaps 
the  most  expensive  of  all  carpets,  and,  if  work  is  a  criterion  of  value,  cer- 
tainly the  most  valuable,  and  which,  in  spite  of  the  reprehensible  charac- 
ter of  their  design,  are  very  beautiful.  The  Aubusson  is  not  a  velvety 
or  pile  carpet  at  all ;  it  has  no  loop,  but  is  merely  a  larger  rep,  but  little 
more  than  the  rep  of  the  common  furniture  covering.  We  are  told  that 
the  pattern  is  wrought  upon  it  with  needle -work,  and  pulls  apart  very 
easily.  In  those  most  commonly  seen,  the  groundwork  is  of  the  ex- 
tremely delicate  shades :  the  tender  blues  and  greens  and  grays,  sprinkled 
at  good  intervals  with  starry  blossoms  perfect  as  if  dropped  upon  it, 
and  in  their  natural  size,  or  but  a  trifle  beyond.  There  is  usually  one 
central  medallion,  filled  with  other  flowers  upon  a  white  ground ;  all 
around  the  whole  runs  a  deep  intricate  border  in  wreaths  and  broken 
garlands  of  buds  and  blossoms,  laurel  leaves  and  oak,  ribbons,  shells,  and 
some  slight  peculiarly  Renaissance  ornament,  usually  on  a  maroon  ground, 
but  little  of  which  is  seen.  A  wide  maroon  rep  comes  in  rolls  to  make 
an  exterior  margin  where  the  shape  of  the  room  demands  it.  In  all  this 
ornament  every  detail  is  so  fine,  the  drawing  so  excellent,  the  tinting  so 
perfect,  that  water -colors  could  not  surpass  its  delicacy  and  charm;  so 
that,  judged  by  its  own  standard,  it  is  impossible  to  find  fault  with  it. 
Beside  it  the  same  character  of  pattern  on  Brussels,  Axminster,  and  Wil- 
ton seems  infinitely  coarse  and  common.  A  carpet  of  this  description 
is  so  frail,  both  as  to  soiling  and  wearing,  that  it  can  with  propriety  be 
used  only  in  the  scenes  of  very  gay  and  festive  life,  where  this  sort  of 
decoration  is  not  so  unsuitable  as  elsewhere.  It  is  for  those  who  literally 
tread  on  flowers,  who  "  have  fed  on  the  roses  and  lain  in  the  lilies  of  life." 
An  Aubusson  carpet  of  the  same  size  as  the  Axminster  just  mentioned  is 
not  dear,  it  will  be  seen,  at  five  hundred  dollars,  which  is  the  usual  price 
asked  nowadays,  although  frequently  less  will  be  taken,  as  the  demand  for 
them  is  small ;  but  it  can  accompany  only  the  richest,  rarest,  most  showy, 
and  costly  furniture,  the  marquetry  and  gilding  of  the  Quatorze  styles, 
lace  and  mirrors  and  Sevres;  in  fact,  it  has  a  strange  family  likeness  to 
Sevres  itself,  and  is  as  much  like  a  superb  dish  of  French  china  as  any- 
thing else. 


176 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XXVIII. 

CURTAINS. 

MRS.  POTIPHAR  had  curtains,  we  believe,  woven  of  every  color  un- 
der the  sun,  and  carpets  that  looked  as  if  the  curtains  had  dripped 
on  them.  It  is  not  curtains  of  that  description,  though,  that  those  of  our 
readers  who  are  arranging  their  houses  picturesquely  or  cosily,  and  with- 
out recourse  to  the  upholsterers,  will  be  inclined  to  select.  Nevertheless, 
we  have  seen  exquisite  broche  stuffs  at  the  upholsterers',  which,  while 
they  were  indeed  tilled  with  every  color  under  the  sun,  had  all  those 
colors  so  closely  blended  and  balanced  as  to  present  only  a  rich  and  quiet 
effect. 

Whatever  may  be  the  predominating  tint  of  the  carpet,  the  curtains 
should  lead  it  up  in  a  something  lighter  shade,  or  else  should  decidedly 
contrast  with  it.  At  any  rate,  they  are  always  to  be  considered  as  part  of 
the  furniture,  and,  when  not  of  diaphanous  stuff,  are  to  correspond  in  color, 
if  not  in  material,  with  the  coverings  of  the  chairs,  sofas,  and  tabourets. 

In  some  rooms,  where  the  chairs  and  other  articles  are  of  wicker  and 
bent  wood,  the  curtains  will  be  of  Japanese  and  other  extreme  Oriental 
stuffs,  as  so  much  bamboo  and  rattan  work  comes  from  that  quarter  of 
the  world,  or  else  of  muslins,  white  or  tinted,  or  of  the  various  flowering 
chintzes  which  correspond  with  the  gay  garden  season  in  which  such 
rooms  and  furniture  are  chiefly  used.  Lace  curtains,  too,  are  very  suita- 
ble for  the  rooms  of  this  summer  occupation.  Although  the  usual  pat- 
terns of  the  coarse  Nottinghams  have  an  effect  of  the  frosty  fern  and 
flower  shapes  upon  the  winter  pane,  lending  some  cool  effect  to  a  summer 
room,  yet  a  geometrical  design  of  bands  and  squares  is  preferable ;  but  we 
think  that  something  real  and  altogether  less  pretentious  is  in  better  taste. 
Prettier  than  they,  to  our  mind,  are  the  sheer  white  muslins  with  insert- 
ings  and  edges  of  coarse  white  guipure,  and  the  unbleached  muslins  with 
unbleached  guipure,  or  even  the  plain  muslins  without  trimming ;  and  the 
fittest  way  of  hanging  all  these  dispenses  with  heavy  cornice  or  lambre- 
quin. Thin  curtains,  it  must  be  admitted,  guard  the  transparent  character 
of  the  window  better  than  any  other. 

There  is  really  a  great  latitude  allowed  in  the  choice  of  curtains,  the 


CURTAINS. 


177 


desirability  of  drapery  being  so  strongly  recognized  that  almost  any  dra- 
pery is  countenanced.  Thus,  it  is  not  unusual  even  in  elegant  drawing- 
rooms  to  see  curtains  of  a  cretonne  that  harmonizes  with  the  other  fur- 
nishing, or  of  embroidered  muslin  alone.  Still,  it  is  desirable,  of  course,  if 
the  drawing-room  is  begun  upon  any  scale  of  richness,  to  carry  it  out  thor- 
oughly;  and  curtains  of  satin,  of  silk  damask,  and  silk  rep,  with  under-cur- 
tains  of  lace  or  of  delicately  wrought  muslin,  are  the  window  drapery  best 
suited  to  a  drawing-room  whose  furniture  is  covered  in  choice  stuffs. 
Yelvet  is  more  suitable  for  the  library,  wThen  that  also  is  richly  furnished ; 
it  is  really  too  heavy  for  the  light  character  that  is  usually  considered  ap- 
propriate to  the  drawing-room  fittings. 

In  the  hanging  of  curtains  their  family  relation  ship  must  not  be  over- 
looked. It  is  into  them  that  the  old  once-tapestry-lined  wTalls  have  shriv- 
elled. Except  for  occasional  instances  of  archaeological  furnishing,  where 
middle  spaces  between  frieze  and  dado  are  still  stretched  with  tapestry  or 
its  representatives,  the  curtains  are  all  there  is  to  stand  for  that  ancient 
and  superb  decoration  with  those  for  whom  the  Flemish  and  the  Gobelin 
tapestries  are  impossible.  Throughout  all  the  revolutions  and  convulsions 
of  France  the  great  manufacturers  of  tapestry,  and  those  of  china  as  well 
— the  Gobelin  and  the  Sevres — have  never  intermitted  their  work ;  but 
their  product  goes  to  princes  and  bankers  and  those  with  corresponding 
incomes,  and  the  "  meaner  sort "  of  wealthy  people  content  themselves 
with  curtains  and  portieres  in  a  very  different  article.  It  would  need, 
indeed,  princely  halls  to  carry  off  those  great  tapestries  well ;  and  in  a 
republican  country,  where  the  richest  men  have  nothing  like  a  retinue  of 
dependents  to  fill  their  halls,  both  the  rooms  and  their  decorations  are 
undreamed  of. 

But  if  we  are  furnishing  with  precision,  in  spite  of  the  latitude  al- 
lowed those  who  are  only  intent  on  producing  pleasing  effect,  and  are 
paying  little  or  no  regard  to  the  curiosity  of  epoch  or  style,  wTe  must 
choose  and  hang  our  curtains  with  hardly  any  latitude,  but  with  as  close 
attention  to  historic  accuracy  as  wdien  we  design  the  carving  of  our  chairs 
and  wainscots.  For  instance,  to  one  furnishing  otherwise  in  the  Gothic, 
the  designs  proper  to  the  stuffs  of  the  Gothic  period  are  to  be  chosen,  and 
not  of  the  succeeding  period.  We  would  hardly  choose,  though,  the  stuffs 
of  the  first  epoch,  which  were  chiefly  cloths  of  gold  and  silver,  mingled, 
indeed,  with  colored  silken  threads,  howTever  pictorially  splendid  the  result 
might  be,  but  would  take  rather  those  designs  where,  either  in  a  charming 
confusion,  or  with  wheels  set  in  bands  dividing  plain  spaces,  are  mingled 
basilisks,  unicorns,  peacocks  —  the  latter  sometimes  mounted  by  riders  — 
pheasants,  and  swallowrs ;  sometimes  tigers  and  elephants ;  sometimes  or- 

12 


178 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


angeSj  roses,  palms,  religious  histories  and  portraits;  or  the  Byzantine  em- 
blems, it  may  be,  or  the  long  stripes  of  the  Saracenic  with  its  strange  in- 
scriptions— both  Gothic  and  Saracenic  being  offshoots  of  the  Byzantine. 
Or  if  we  are  furnishing  in  the  Renaissance  style,  then  the  designs  of  elon- 
gated overflowing  vases  with  dolphins,  flowers,  harlequins,  cliimseras,  clas- 
sical outlines,  straps,  buckles,  and  shields,  these  all  of  silk,  and  those  of  the 
suggested  flower  of  velvet  upon  silk,  from  the  Palermo,  Venice,  and  Lucca 
looms,  and  the  just-invented  Utrecht  velvets  of  the  time.  If  the  pictured 
character  of  all  this  is  objected  to,  we  must  remember  that  antiquarians 
tell  us  that  from  tbe  wrought- work  of  ancient  Eastern  tapestries  brought 
to  Athens  the  imitative  art  of  painting  took  rise,  and  that  thus  it  has  cer- 
tain rights  to  dues  of  honor.  Nevertheless,  all  of  these  designs  are  fre- 
quently so  subtly  introduced  in  modern  stuffs  that  one  has  to  look  more 
than  twice  before  discovering  anything  but  a  pleasant  blending  of  lines 
and  tints ;  and  for  those  that  prefer  it  there  remains  the  plain  repped  sur- 
face of  silk  or  wool,  according  to  the  means  of  the  purchaser,  banded  off 
by  slight  bars  not  too  full  of  this  ornament,  or  entirely  without  it. 

Altogether  the  neatest  and  pleasantest  way  of  hanging  curtains  is 
when  the  stuff  is  suspended  by  rings  running  on  rods,  either  open  or  be- 
neath a  lambrequin  that  may  be  boxed  in  without  folds  or  may  itself  run 
on  the  rod,  the  ends  of  the  rod  being  either  spear  -  headed,  a  derivative 
shape,  or  simple  pommels.  The  boxed-in  lambrequin  was  that  in  use  in 
the  vast  castles  where  all  the  drapery  had  its  origin,  and  it  was  put  up 
after  the  other  curtain,  or  ])ortiere,  was  hung  over  the  door-way,  and  it 
was  found  that  some  draught  still  made  itself  felt  over  the  top.  With 
most  of  these  stuffs,  fringes  are  undesirable ;  at  the  best,  the  fringe  repre- 
sents only  the  ragged  edge  of  the  unshorn,  untrimmed  material.  With 
Renaissance  furnishing,  other  methods  of  hanging  are  suitable — those  with 
loops,  festoons,  fringes,  cords  and  tassels,  under  false  cornices.  In  the 
Gothic  the  curtain  is  permissible  at  the  window's  height ;  but  in  the  Re- 
naissance and  the  Quatorze  it  may  fall  from  the  cornice  of  the  room  under 
its  own  top  pieces,  giving  greater  height  and  space  to  the  whole  room. 
Whatever  be  the  curtains,  it  is  necessary  to  have  straight  hollancls  shades 
within  the  whole  arrangement ;  and  something  peculiarly  elegant  for  cit- 
ies, where  the  screen  is  valued,  and  where  there  is  not  that  picture  to  be 
enjoyed  from  the  windows  which  the  country  sometimes  affords,  is  the 
fluted  silk  set  close  to  the  pane  as  Venetian  blinds. 

For  the  dining-room  and  library,  heavier  curtains  are  to  be  chosen 
than  for  the  drawing-room,  the  solid  character  of  the  dining-room  and  the 
grave  one  of  the  library  demanding  it;  but  in  the  chambers,  the  boudoir, 
and  sitting-rooms,  lighter,  airier,  more  easily  cleaned,  and  much  less  expen- 


CURTAINS. 


179 


sive  ones  are  the  wiser.  Bedroom  curtains  may  be  made  of  seeded  mus- 
lin very  full  under  a  standing  ruffle  that  serves  for  cornice,  with  a  strip 
of  colored  cambric  passed  through  the  hern,  and  the  whole  bowed  back 
with  ribbons  matching  that  strip.  An  unbleached  sheeting  bound  with 
a  bright  border  of  print  of  some  quaint  pattern  has  a  nice  effect;  and, 
indeed,  there  is  hardly  an  end  to  the  combinations  that  an  ingenious  fancy 
can  devise. 

Whenever  the  top  -  piece,  called  the  cornice,  can  be  dispensed  with  in 
putting  up  curtains,  it  is  best  to  do  so ;  very  few  have  yet  been  designed 


Portiere  ill  Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room. 


that  are  not  really  injurious  to  their  effect.  Where  long  curtains  cannot 
be  afforded,  simple  lambrequins,  a  little  longer  on  the  sides  than  in  the 
middle,  go  far  toward  filling  their  place,  and  there  are  an  infinite  variety 
of  lambrequin  shapes  according  to  which  they  may  be  cut ;  silken  lambre- 
quins over  lace  curtains,  without  the  intervening  long  silken  or  woollen 
outer  curtain,  being  sometimes  better  adapted  to  the  desired  effect  in  cer- 
tain airy  drawing-rooms  than  more  cumbersome  drapery.  But  so  much 
do  windows  need  clothing — unless  when  of  exceptionally  lovely  frames — 
that  as  a  general  rule  almost  any  curtains  are  better  than  none,  since  dra- 


ISO 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


peiy  of  some  sort  it  is  usually  felt  necessary  to  have  about  that  outlet  into 
sky  and  air,  if  only  that  of  a  growing  ivy  vine.  Indeed,  we  have  seen 
windows  curtained  with  ivies  in  a  way  that  would  have  shamed  all  the 
tapestries  of  the  East ;  and  the  immeasurable  influence  even  of  lambre- 
quins in  destroying  the  naked  look  of  a  room  may  be  learned  merely  by 
pinning  up  some  boughs  of  autumn  leaves  above  the  window  casings,  and 
observing  the  air  of  covering  and  use  and  habitation  which  these  simple 
outlines  are  capable  of  imparting. 


WALL-PAPER. 


181 


XXIX. 

WALL-PAPER. 

[F  the  carpet  acts  as  the  background  to  the  furniture  of  a  room,  the  wall- 
paper may  be  said  to  be  its  atmosphere,  for  it  is  indeed  as  much  so  as 
if  it  were  the  medium  through  which  all  its  objects  are  seen,  and  it  per- 
forms for  the  room  the  same  function  that  the  air  does  for  the  earth  when 
it  becomes  the  ■boundary-line  of  sight  where  the  sky  slips  over  its  side. 

It  is  very  far  from  being  an  affair  of  small  consequence,  as  many  seem 
to  think  it  is,  what  the  paper  may  be  in  a  room,  since  with  our  cabinets 
and  pictures,  and  brackets  and  sconces,  and  vases  and  busts,  and  old  china, 
we  can  nearly  cover  it :  very  far,  because,  whatever  be  the  furnitures,  a 
large  share  of  the  whole  temperament  of  the  room  will  be  given  by  the 
wall-paper ;  and  it  is  only  now  and  then  that  we  come  across  a  person  with 
any  transmuting  power  capable  of  taking  an  ugly  paper  that  may  not  be 
removed,  and  by  means  of  different  ones  representing  dado  and  frieze  and 
edgings,  securing  an  harmonious  and  quite  satisfactory  whole. 

The  color  of  the  wall-paper  is  a  thing  to  be  decided,  of  course,  only  by 
the  furnisher,  and  will  be  chosen  in  relation  to  the  general  tone  of  color 
of  the  room.  Like  the  curtains  and  furniture  coverings,  it  must  either 
be  in  contrast  or  in  unison  with  the  carpet,  although  in  more  delicate 
tints,  subdued  meanwhile,  and  quiet  both  in  hue  and  pattern.  It  will 
always  be  well  for  the  furnisher,  unless  possessed  of  a  nice  instinct  for 
color,  to  look  into  the  analogies  of  colors  a  little  in  the  beginning,  to  re- 
member that  the  primary  colors — blue,  yellow,  and  red — have  their  com- 
plements in  orange,  purple,  and  green,  and  that  the  tertiary  colors  —  the 
russets,  citrines,  and  olives — have  again  their  own  complements ;  and  with 
these,  of  late,  very  line  effects  have  been  produced.  M.  Chevreul,  of  the 
Gobelins  factory,  has  made  some  valuable  observations  upon  the  harmonies 
of  the  various  colors,  and  he  classifies  the  harmonies  resulting  from  imme- 
diate juxtaposition  of  certain  tones,  where  the  pure  tint  is  either  dulled  or 
heightened  by  admixture  of  black  or  white,  those  resulting  from  pure  tint 
mixed  with  the  least  other  color,  and  those  where  well  -  contrasted  colors 
seem  all  to  be  under  the  bloom  of  one  of  the  colors  a  little  stronger  than 
the  rest ;  and  he  carries  the  subject  out  to  very  close  limits,  the  chief  fact 


182 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


eliminated  being  that  colors  seen  together  differentiate  themselves  to  the 
last  degree,  these  mutually  dulling  each  other,  those  heightening  and  in- 
tensifying each  other.  A  little  attention  to  the  subject,  although  not  nec- 
essarily on  a  very  minute  scale,  will  prevent  violent  dissonances  hurting  the 
eye,  and  secure  agreeable  sensations.  But  those  who  do  not  dare  to  trust 
to  their  artistic  sense  or  knowledge  in  giving  the  strong  colors  near  neigh- 
borhood will  usually  be  safe  in  using  the  varying  shades  of  one  main  body 
tint,  whatever  that  may  be,  having  in  mind,  however,  the  danger  to  health 
of  the  arsenical  tints.  Yet  if  one  is  agitated  upon  the  question  of  health, 
a  painted  wall  will  always  be  found  to  be  cleaner  and  surer  than  any 
paper,  owing  to  its  washable  nature.  Still,  a  painted  surface,  be  it  ever 
so  well  done  and  delicately  stencilled,  is  always  wanting  in  that  powdery 
bloom  which  gives  a  charm  to  the  paper-hanging.  There  is  not,  moreover, 
any  such  talent  among  the  freseoers  and  stencillers  of  the  day  as  there  is 
among  the  designers  of  wall-papers,  some  of  the  very  best  pencils  of  Eng- 
land and  of  all  Europe  being  engaged  upon  these  designs. 

The  choice  of  design  in  the  paper  is  an  affair  of  merely  secondary  dif- 
ficulty, since  the  effect  of  color  is  omnipresent,  but  that  of  design  is  not 
always  so  apparent.  A  close  and  small  design  for  the  main  portion  of 
the  wall  may  be  pronounced  the  best,  except  in  extraordinarily  large 
rooms ;  but  even  where  large  figures  are  used,  the  outlines  should  be  so 
interlaced  and  mingled,  and  the  colors  so  subtly  blended,  that  it  will  not  be 
easy  to  tell  at  once  where  this  figure  ends  and  that  begins.  As  a  general 
thing,  such  papers  as  these  well-blended  large  patterns  are  their  own  deco- 
ration, and  need  no  pictures  upon  them,  although  they  will  receive  statuary. 
The  diapered  and  damasked  and  calendered  papers  can  hardly  be  rendered 
out  of  taste ;  but  if  natural  imitations  are  given,  they  must  be  more  or  less 
conventionalized,  and,  moreover,  given  flatly,  that  is,  without  shadows  of 
objects  or  anything  that  can  afford  relief  to  the  representations;  the  spotty 
effect  which  is  made  by  the  repetition  of  detached  bunches  of  flowers  on 
any  ground  is  something  to  be  avoided ;  and  the  opposite  treatment,  by- 
the-way — the  attempt  to  lift  the  height  of  a  room  by  stripes — is  a  poor 
artifice  that  meets  its  own  reward.  But  even  the  diapered  surface  is  one 
full  of  recurrence,  and  with  all  the  warnings  against  the  use  in  sleeping- 
rooms  of  those  patterns  where  the  repeats  may  be  counted,  we  think  it 
would  be  almost  impossible  to  have  even  so  much  figure  there  as  the  mere 
watery  lines  of  a  calendered  paper  which  the  fevered  eye,  weary  of  vacan- 
cy, would  not  seize  upon ;  the  most  closely  woven  curves  and  angles  and 
the  colors  of  the  best  conventionalized  papers  that  eye  is  capable  of  dis- 
torting into  monstrous  shapes.  Papers  in  plain  colors  come,  such  as  those 
already  mentioned — oiled  papers,  as  they  are  called — of  the  "patent  wash- 


WALL-PAPER. 


183 


able  tints,"  with  which  one  can  avoid  this  difficulty ;  but  if  one  is  obliged 
to  use  them,  one  is  debarred  from  the  opportunity  of  a  great  deal  of  de- 
lightful effect. 

Paper-hanging  is  quite  a  modern  invention,  after  all ;  that  is,  in  its 
Western  use.  In  the  East  wall-papers  had  been  known  from  time  imme- 
morial ;  but  it  was  only  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  that 
they  were  brought  from  China,  imported  into  England  and  Holland  along 
with  a  multitude  of  other  indiennes  and  chinoiseries.  France  took  hold 
of  the  idea  and  perfected  it,  and  has  hitherto  produced  the  best,  while 
Germany  and  Belgium  have  given  the  cheapest  papers ;  but  England  has 
lately  come  to  rival  France.  There  is  now  a  vast  variety  to  choose  from 
everywhere :  mounting  from  the  rough  kitchen  fonrpenny  paper  that,  put 
on  wrong  side  out,  when  its  pattern  is  but  slightly  stamped,  presents  a 
uniform  gray  surface  like  something  a  great  deal  more  expensive,  and, 
where  the  pattern  is  heavily  stamped,  presents  a  damascened  gray  surface, 
to  those  elaborate  in  art  and  material,  whose  use  in  a  single  room  requires 
an  expenditure  of  a  small  fortune.  There  are  the  common  satin-faced 
ones,  the  more  desirable  rough  -  surf aced  sort,  the  gilded,  silvered,  and 
bronzed  grounds,  embossed  gilt  and  mica,  imitation  of  silks  and  tapestries, 
cretonnes  and  chintzes,  raised  and  stamped  velvets ;  there  are  some  like 
delicate  muslins  embroidered  in  chain-stitch  and  lined  with  color,  at  six 
dollars  a  roll  and  upward ;  others  like  the  dark  old  embossed  Spanish 
leathers  buttoned  to  the  wall,  from  nine  to  twelve  dollars  a  roll,  accord- 
ing to  present  prices ;  there  are  the.  thick  Japanese  papers,  where  the 
black  ground  riots  in  fantastic  assemblage  of  all  rich  colors,  where  a  gold 
ground  carries  birds  and  butterflies  and  fans  in  charming  confusion,  and 
those  of  lighter,  less  marked,  and  less  agreeable  characteristics  at  about 
the  same  price  as  the  leather  papers ;  others  yet  more  expensive,  thick  and 
heavy,  a  finely  glazed  porcelain-like  representation  of  tiles  of  all  sorts,  for 
those  that  will  have  them  in  imitation ;  and,  in  addition,  there  are  the  fres- 
coed papers,  and  those  for  ceilings,  for  dadoes,  and  for  friezes.  It  would 
be  hard  if  out  of  such  a  variety  one  could  not  get  up  rooms  that  would  be 
satisfying  to  the  most  demanding  sense  of  the  beautiful. 

There  are  many  papers  now  issued  where  the  old  tints  are  so  exqui- 
sitely graded  and  combined  that  they  produce  the  effect  of  new  ones.  In- 
deed, the  new  school  seems  to  have  caught  the  secret  of  the  old  colorists, 
especially  of  the  workers  in  tapestry,  although  it  does  not  by  any  means 
refuse  help  from  the  latest  chemical  invention.  The  greater  number  of 
all  these  papers  are  conventionalized  in  their  designs ;  that  is,  even  where'' 
the  natural  leaf  and  flower  are  used,  they  are  so  interwoven,  melted,  and 
mingled,  so  changed  in  inessentials,  so  refined  and  so  intensified,  yet 


184 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


all  the  time  in  arrangement  corresponding  to  geometric  rule  and  princi- 
ple, that  they  seem  like  the  flowers  of  some  enchanted  land  rather  than 
those  of  our  own,  reminding  one  of  all  sorts  of  weird  conditions  and 
fancies.  We  recall,  in  particular,  one  Morris  paper  of  idealized  jasmine 
flowers  and  leaves,  the  design  forming  its  own  background,  and  where  the 
tints  were  more  suggestively  and  conventionally  treated  than  the  shapes, 
with  their  pale  olivine,  fulvous,  creamy  shades,  which  in  themselves  so 
transformed  the  flowers  that  they  seemed  to  be  fresh  combinations  of  old 
lines,  and  had  the  virtue  of  new  creations,  yet,  although  so  full  of  color, 
bridally  pure  and  delicate.  Indeed,  it  is  this  new  creation,  this  leading- 
up  of  beauty  into  higher  reaches  by  the  new  combination  of  the  old  ele- 
ments, that  makes  a  part  of  the  merit  of  conventionalized  treatment. 
"Transformed  by  grace,"  said  an  old  nun  in  explaining  it,  "nothing  on 
earth  perfect  till  grace  illumines  it."  We  presume  this  condition  of  con- 
ventionalizing would  hardly  obtain  with  most  artists,  who  believe  rather 
in  the  necessities  of  art  than  in  the  mysticisms  of  religion,  and  who  hold 
that  conventionalism  is  required  in  order  to  prevent  an  .individuality  of 
detail  that  may  turn  the  mind  from  broad  general  effect.  Yet  it  is 
scarcely  more  than  a  searching  way  of  repeating  unconsciously  Mr.  Wor- 
n urn's  assertion  that  "  wrhere  the  mind  views  something  more  than  the 
surface,  or  where  the  eyes  are  auxiliary  only  to  the  mind,  every  natural 
object  may  be  suggestive  of  some  new  essential  form,  or  combination  of 
forms.  The  lotus,  the  lily,  and  the  tulip  must  be  something  more  than 
flowers  to  the  designer,  or  his  use  of  them  is  limited  indeed."  Merely 
natural  representation  also,  it  may  be  said,  is  imitative  and  weak,  but  con- 
ventional treatment  is  interpretative  and  loftier :  one  is  a  photograph,  the 
;>ther  is  a  design  ;  one  is  mere  handicraft,  the  other  is  art.  No  ornament, 
the  authority  just  quoted  tells  us,  "  is  beautiful  because  jt  represents  any 
natural  object,  but  because  it  has  been  chosen  to  illustrate  certain  symme- 
tries or  contrasts  by  the  very  nature  of  vision  delightful  to  the  mind,  just 
as  harmonies  and  melodies  delight  it  through  another  of  its  senses ;"  and 
we  are  further  told  that  the  effect  of  the  whole  design  should  never  be 
hindered  by  attention  to  details,  as  it  is  in  the  natural  imitations ;  that 
where  nature  groups,  it  is  not  the  individual,  but  the  group,  that  is  the  or- 
nament ;  and  thus  where  we  make  the  individual  ornamental,  as  we  do  in 
natural  imitation  again,  we  conform  to  nature  in  a  little  thing,  but  out- 
rage her  in  a  great.  And  the  broad  fact  remains  that  the  natural  repre- 
sentation is  a  picture,  and  in  being  a  picture  it  loses,  of  course,  all  power 
of  being  an  ornamental  detail  of  a  scheme ;  but  the  natural  representa- 
tion, taken  and  transformed  to  an  "harmonic  succession  of  curves" — that 
is,  conventionalized — has  gone  through  an  organic  process ;  it  has  gone 


WALL-PAPER. 


185 


through  this  organic  process  in  the  human  brain,  and  in  becoming  ideal- 
ized is  as  much  finer,  loftier,  and  nobler  as  the  living  soul  is  better  than 
dead  matter.  And  all  this  holds  true  as  much  in  every  other  sort  of  orna- 
mental design  as  in  that  of  wall-paper.  Correggio,  indeed,  may  paint  his 
disputed  wall  surface  of  rosy  children  peeping  through  trellises,  covered 
with  blossoming  vines ;  but  only  Correggio.  The  rest  of  us  are  wiser  to 
avoid  that  sort  of  realism  on  our  walls,  for  the  simple  reason,  if  for  no 
nobler  one,  that  it  is  absolutely  impossible  in  decency  to  set  the  furniture 
against  the  picture  it  makes,  or  to  hang  one  picture  on  another.  That 
furnisher,  on  the  whole,  will  have  chosen  the  best  paper  who  has  made  it 
subsidiary  to  the  ornamental  scheme  of  the  room — for  we  presume  that  if 
there  is  any  uncommon  care  in  the  matter  at  all,  there  is  an  ornamental 
scheme  to  be  considered — and  will  have  called  no  more  attention  to  its 
details  and  particulars  than  is  called  to  the  details  of  the  soft  gray  bloom 
with  which  some  misty  mornings  suffuse  the  air. 


186 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XXX. 


THE  HALL. 


:1 


ALTHOUGH  in  its  best  estate  in  the  modern  dwelling  the  hall  has  in 
reality  shrivelled  into  a  mere  entry-way,  it  should  never  be  forgot- 
ten, even  when  in  miniature,  from  what  it  is  that  in  the  first  place  it  de- 
rives ;  and  as  far  as  jDossible,  either  to  its  space  or  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  house  of  which  it  is  part,  its  ancestral  traits 
should  be  maintained  and  always  vindicated. 

The  slightest  glance  within  the  door  should  perceive  a  char- 
acter of  cordiality  and  hospitality  in  the  hall ;  and  that  charac- 
ter can  just  as  plainly  be  told  in  its  furnishing  and  decoration 
as  if  the  hosts  stood  there  in  person  with  outstretched  hands  to 
|  greet  the  guest. 

The  idea  that  the  hall  is  to  present  to  the  mind  upon  en- 
|  trance  is  that  of  shelter — shelter  and  shadow  and  rest.    It  must 
j§  be  apparent  that  it  is  the  entrance  of  a  home  —  one  of  those 
I  homes  where  we  draw  the  long  breath  of  relief  as  we  return  to 
it  and  shut  out  the  world  behind  us.   The  guest  comes  from  all 
out-doors,  from  heat  and  sun,  from  cold  and  snow,  or  from  gloom 
and  rain,  and  always  from  some  degree  of  fatigue  of  movement. 
Queen  Anue  He  is  to  be  made  aware,  the  instant  that  the  door  closes  after 

Clock 

him,  that  he  has  found  this  complete  shelter,  and  put  a  barrier, 
for  the  time  being,  between  him  and  the  outside  annoyance.  Thus  the 
door  itself  presents  one  of  the  main  features  of  this  hospitable  shelter,  for 
in  its  right  mind  it  opens  widely,  swings  easily,  shuts  heavily,  and  displays 
its  great  hinges  and  solid  bolts  like  friends  and  warders.  The  next  feature 
apparent  will  be  that  presented  by  the  tinting  of  the  hall,  which  gives  it  a 
large  portion  of  its  effect;  and  we  think  there  can  hardly  be  a  question 
that  this  tinting  should  generally  be  in  the  darker  shades.  In  houses 
meant  merely  for  summer  resort,  at  the  sea-side  or  in  the  country,  this  is 
not  so  much  to  be  insisted  on,  as  the  whole  place  in  such  houses  has  more 
or  less  of  the  nature  of  the  garden  pavilion,  and  doors  are  open  and  sun- 
shine pouring  in,  and  the  hall  is  a  thoroughfare  but  little  different  from  a 
covered  balcony.    Yet  even  there  it  seems  to  us  that  it  would  be  better  if 


THE  HALL. 


187 


felt  emphatically  as  a  place  of  shadow.  But  in  the  house  that  is  the  fam- 
ily house  the  year  round,  where  the  family  root  is  planted  and  its  name 
and  honor  upheld,  the  character  and  dignity  of  home  are  to  be  considered 
and  supported :  that  house  is  no  garden  pavilion  set  merely  for  pleasure 
and  enjoyment ;  it  is  the  place  where  the  serious  business  of  life  goes  on  ; 
there  the  bride  comes  home  to  take  up  her  duties  and  merge  her  existence 
in  that  of  others,  there  the  heir  is  born,  there  age  is  protected,  and  there 
the  dead  are  brought  back  for  the  funeral  procession  to  pass  out  of  the 
wide  old  doors.  Under  such  circumstances  the  frivolous  frippery  of  light 
colors  and  gilding  in  the  entrance  hall  may  be  pronounced  to  be  as  badly 
out  of  place  as  a  young  girl's  gewgaws  upon  the  matron's  toilet,  where 
character  and  majesty  are  demanded.  Solidity  and  permanence  are  desir- 
able characteristics  to  present,  and  in  some  covert  but  easily  recognized 
way  they  are  presented  better  by  dark  rich  surfaces  than  by  gay  and  airy 
ones.  There  are  other  places  in  the  house  where  the  gay  and  airy  tints 
can  be  used  to  fitness  and  advantage. 

We  would  recommend,  then,  in  the  wood-work  of  the  hall  the  use  of 
the  dark  or  stained  woods  in  doors,  staircases,  and  wainscots.  For  the 
walls  a  deep  dado  of  the  wood,  either  plain  or  panelled,  there  being  noth- 
ing finer  or  choicer  than  carvings  of  the  various  old  linen  panels  there; 
above  this  the  smooth  wall  surface  either  stained  or  papered  in  subdued 
tones — if  the  latter,  with  not  too  large  a  figure — upon  which  the  family 
portraits  are  to  be  hung,  and  under  the  cornice  a  broad  richly  decorated 
frieze.  If  the  dado  is  beyond  the  means  allowed  for  outlay  in  this  direc- 
tion, there  are  very  nice  papers  which  are  made  expressly  to  be  used  in 
the  same  way,  and  the  effect  obtained,  if  not  so  rich  and  solid,  is  nearly 
as  pleasant  to  the  eye.  The  ceiling,  if  frescoed,  should  be  frescoed  with 
some  formality,  and  not  with  any  loose  decorative  fancy ;  if  plain,  should 
be  tinted  harmoniously,  and  well  off  the  white ;  and  if  the  dark  rafters 
can  be  shown  in  any  form,  but  particularly  in  set  caissons,  the  result  will 
be  very  noble.  Great  art  has  been  exhibited  in  the  old  ceilings  in  wood 
and  plaster,  and  there  are  many  models  from  which  ideas  of  work  on  a 
lesser  surface  can  be  borrowed. 

The  floor  of  the  hall  is  another  place  where  expense  can  be  well  be- 
stowed on  an  inlaid  or  parquet  flooring  of  varying  shades  of  woods  in 
some  geometrical  design  as  destitute  of  dazzle  as  possible.  Rugs,  prefera- 
bly the  dark  full-colored  India  ones,  or  those  in  imitation  of  them,  are  to 
be  laid  on  this  floor.  To  most  eyes  these  are  pleasanter  than  a  carpet  cov- 
ering the  entire  floor.  They  are  certainly  cleaner  and  healthier,  and  but 
slightly  more  troublesome  to  the  housekeeper,  and  they  preserve  the  an- 
cient tradition  of  the  hall  floor  better,  although  tiles,  marbles,  and  stones 


188 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


might  do  that  better  still,  were  they  not  unsuited  to  our  climate  and  cus- 
toms in  the  main.  Yet  those  whose  house  is  on  a  smaller  scale  of  expen- 
diture will  find  that  the  carpet  which  covers  the  floors  of  the  other  rooms 


Modern  Gothic  Hall. 


on  the  ground  plan  has  a  very  pleasant  appearance  when  continued  over 
the  floor  of  the  hall  also,  adding  to  the  effect  of  space,  and  preventing,  if 
the  space  be  small,  the  incongruous  appearance  of  too  many  varying  com- 
binations of  color  and  figure  meeting  the  eye  almost  at  once. 

The  staircase  should  be  well  set  in  the  hall,  not  too  near  the  door,  very 
broad,  with  a  solid  balustrade  and  hand-rail,  the  upper  hall  with  its  own 
balustrade  suspended  in  such  a  way  as  to  obtain  for  it  a  light  gallery-like 
look.  Low  wide  steps  should  make  the  flight,  all  the  better  if  broken  into 
landings.  If  the  floor  is  parqueted,  a  strip  of  rich  thick -piled  carpet  is 
laid  down  with  rods  over  the  centre  of  the  flight,  ending  in  a  rug  at  the 
foot ;  if  the  floor  is  carpeted,  then  the  same  carpet  wholly  covers  the 
stairs,  secured  with  a  button  at  either  end  of  the  step,  and  made  yet  softer 
and  more  enduring  by  a  pad  beneath,  binding  the  stair's  edge. 

If  one  is  the  possessor  of  an  ancestral  chest,  the  hall  is  the  place  for  it. 
If  it  should  chance  to  be  of  darkened  oak,  carved  with  any  hint  of  the 
quaint  old  designs,  with  very  visible  metal  hinges  and  ponderous  locks,  it 
is  invaluable ;  but  if  of  the  lighter,  commoner  woods,  it  is  still  a  great  pos- 
session, all  the  more  should  any  genuine  date  have  been  carved  upon  it. 
It  stands  high,  is  long  and  broad,  and  usually  has  a  till  and  a  few  small 


THE  HALL. 


189 


drawers  within  it,  with  a  larger  open  place  under  the  lid  for  hats  and 
shawls.  Few  things  give  a  more  finished  and  stable  look  to  the  place  than 
this  chest. 

Other  furniture  of  the  hall  depends  a  great  deal  upon  its  size.  A  cab- 
inet for  curiosities,  or  for  canes,  umbrellas,  hshing-rods,  and  guns,  is  appro- 
priately placed  there  when  there  is  room.  A  comfortable  sofa  or  lounge, 
a  pair  of  antlers  on  which  to  hang  the  hats,  over  a  little  stand  for  the  stick 
that  is  wanted  immediately,  and  two  or  three  high -backed  old-fashioned 
chairs,  may  accompany  it. 


Old  Jacobean  Hall. 


When  the  house  is  not  heated  by  a  furnace,  nothing  is  more  delight- 
ful than  a  blazing  grate  in  the  hall,  equally  so  when  in  summer  it  is  filled 
with  fresh  green  boughs,  or  has  a  console  of  blossoming  flowers  before  it. 

The  evening  light  of  the  hall  depends  a  good  deal  upon  individual 


190 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


fancy;  and  we  will  only  say  that,  unless  there  is  some  peculiarity  in  the 
construction  that  makes  one  wish  to  increase  an  effect  of  painted  glass,  tha 
globes  or  shades  are  in  better  taste  when  in  white  than  when  in  colored 
glass. 

Every  hall  is  improved  by  the  presence  of  pictures  and  other  works  of 
art.  We  are  not  speaking,  of  course,  of  princely  halls,  with  their  rows  of 
statues,  their  bass-reliefs  and  bronzes  and  big  vases.  Most  of  our  readers 
will  hold  themselves  fortunate  if  they  can  spare  from  other  places  a  single 
big  vase  and  a  statuette  for  the  hall.  Still,  there  are  apt  to  be  in  all  houses 
pictures  better  suited  to  the  hall  than  to  the  portions  of  the  house  which 
are  of  a  more  strikingly  domestic  character;  and  the  pictures  most  de- 
cidedly proper  to  the  hall,  as  we  have  already  intimated,  are  the  family 
portraits.  These  are  not  exactly  wanted  anywhere  else ;  they  are  per- 
fectly placed  there ;  the  faces  look  down  out  of  the  frames  as  if  your  race 
welcomed  your  comings  and  stood  around  you  to  receive  your  guests. 
Seen  every  day  in  their  mute  procession,  they  would  seem  to  oblige  one  to 
maintain  a  standard  of  thought  and  behavior  equal  to  the  famiby  legends; 
and  as  the  household  go  in  and  out  daily,  and  many  times  a  day,  along  the 
thoroughfare  where  they  hang,  those  whom  they  represent,  although  long 
since  dust,  seem  still  to  have  their  part  among  the  living. 

It  may  seem  fanciful,  but  to  the  j^erson  entering  the  hall  a  gush  of 
bird-song  from  some  unseen  and  remote  quarter  is  a  very  pleasant  greet- 
ing, full  of  the  suggestions  of  home.  It  calls  up  some  thought  of  inner 
rooms  and  sunny  and  flowery  recesses  not  immediately  open  to  the  stran- 
'ger,  and  makes  one  remember  all  the  guarded  privacy  and  sacred  secrecy 
of  Eastern  homes,  with  their  roses  and  birds  behind  their  gilded  lattices. 
Too  much  thought  and  attention,  indeed,  cannot  be  given  to  this  first  step 
witl j in  the  portals  of  the  house.  It  is  literally  the  first  step  that  counts. 
The  empty  and  careless  hall,  with  its  hap-hazard  carpet,  its  chance  table 
and  chair,  or  its  common  rack  and  stand  and  its  bare  wall,  cannot  but  chill 
the  owner,  every  time  he  enters,  with  its  unhomelike  aspect ;  cannot  but 
tell  the  stranger  that  guests  are  few  and  not  expected — perhaps  not  too 
welcome ;  while  the  comfortable  one  where  thought  and  time  have  been 
spent,  if  not  a  mint  of  money,  stamps  the  house  with  the  seal  of  some 
trained  taste,  refinement,  and  intelligence,  and  with  a  sense  of  warmth,  of 
comfort,  and  of  cordial  hospitality,  which  latter,  if  some  think  to  be  a  mat- 
ter of  choice,  others,  in  the  love  of  their  fellow-man,  like  the  Arab,  hold 
to  be  a  duty. 


THE  DINING-ROOM. 


191 


XXXI, 

THE  DINING-ROOM. 

IF  it  were  not  for  the  sanctity  of  the  family  sitting-room,  one  would  not 
be  far  out  of  the  way  in  calling  the  dining-room,  after  all,  the  heart  of 
the  house.  For  it  is  in  the  dining-room,  in  all  ordinary  households,  that 
the  family  assemble  three  times  a  day — sometimes  the  only  place  in  which 
they  are  sure  to  be  together  for  any  length  of  time ;  and  if  things  are 
wrong  in  the  dining-room,  they  are  tolerably  sure  to  be  wrong  everywhere 
else  in  the  house. 

The  first  impression,  then,  wnich  the  dining-room  should  make  on  the 
beholder,  the  constant  one  it  should  make  upon  its  occupants,  is  that  of 
solid  comfort.  There  is  to  be  no  airy  trifling  either  with  colors  or  fabrics 
there,  and  fussy  fancy-work  must  not  presume  to  show  its  face  in  such  pre- 
cincts. The  colors  must  be  those  substantial  colors  which  hold  their  own 
— the  rich  crimsons,  the  dark  blues,  the  dull  Pompeian  reds  and  olivines, 
and  kindred  tints,  according  to  one's  choice,  but  those  which,  being  of  full 
body,  present  no  appearance  of  having  faded  from  the  original  hue  — 
colors  which  suggest  permanence,  as  the  fade  colors  suggest  poverty  un- 
less relieved  by  gayeties  out  of  place  in  the  dining-room. 

The  suggestion  of  poverty,  by -the -way,  is  something  to  be  avoided 
more  in  this  than  in  any  other  room  of  the  house.  If  it  is  possible  to  have 
but  one  sumptuous  room,  we  would  advise  that  the  others  should  be  com- 
fortable, but  that  the  dining-room  should  be  that  one  sumptuous  one.  It 
is  all  very  well  to  pronounce  eating  and  drinking  animal,  but  so  is  life  ani- 
mal ;  and  as  one  must  eat  and  drink  to  live,  one  should  be  allowed  to  eat 
and  drink  in  peace  without  more  reminder  of  care  and  pinching  than  is 
absolutely  necessary ;  and  this  a  pleasant  dining-room  secures.  When  we 
say  that  the  dining-room  should  be  sumptuous,  however,  we  do  not  mean 
gaudily  or  ostentatiously  so,  but  a  sumptuousness  that  is  felt  at  once,  and 
observed  upon  examination,  but  does  not  carry  its  price  upon  its  face,  and 
does  not  obtrude  its  splendor. 

But  while  the  subdued  richness  of  the  dining-room  is  felt,  there  should 
be  an  amount  of  ease  there  which  shall  make  it  dear  to  the  family,  and 
allow  the  guest  to  feel  at  home — that  is,  shall  cause  the  guest  to  feel  that 


192 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


he  is  not  upsetting  the  house  by  his  presence,  that  the  customary  routine 
is  maintained,  and  that  the  permanent  arrangement  of  the  room  is  so  com- 
fortable that  evidently  the  "best  things"  are  not  emerging  from  their  dark 
places  for  him  alone.  In  fact,  "best  things"  are  the  great  enemy  of  the 
dining-room;  it  should  always  be  so  good  that  it  can  hardly  be  better. 
We  venture  to  believe  that  the  wife  who  makes  the  dining-room  her  first 
consideration,  having  it  always  in  such  a  state  in  all  its  appointments,  and 
her  table  so  equipped  and  served,  that  her  husband,  if  he  has  done  his 
part  of  the  duty  and  allowed  suitable  provision,  will  always  feel  free  to 
bring  home  his  friend  to  dinner  without  creating  an  earthquake  in  which 
soiled  cloth  and  cracked  dishes  are  swept  away  for  clean  damask  and  the 
nice  china,  will  have  twice  as  much  of  her  husband's  society  as  she  would 
otherwise  obtain.  For  if  he  cannot  bring  his  friend  home,  he  will  take 
him  somewhere  else ;  and  if  he  once  has  the  habit  of  home  established, 
he  will  find  it  too  pleasant  and  comfortable  to  break.  Let  her  feel  that 
her  husband  is,  after  all,  her  most  honored  guest,  and  things  are  not  good 
enough  for  him  unless  they  are  good  enough  for  the  best  that  may  come 
with  him.  She  will  perhaps  find  it  a  measure  of  wise  administration,  too; 
for  the  husband  that  has  all  as  he  wishes  in  the  dining-room  will  be  tol- 
erably sure  that,  so  far  as  it  is  in  his  power,  the  wife  shall  have  all  she 
wants  in  the  drawing-room. 

As  one  of  the  component  parts  of  the  comfortable  dining-room,  an 
ample  chimney-place  should  be  demanded ;  and  it  may  be  either  with  tiled 
jambs  and  hearth  and  great  shining  fire-dogs  to  hold  the  logs,  or  with  the 
old  Franklin  fire -frame  and  its  polished  brasses,  or  with  the  coal -grate 
flanked  by  bright  steel  implements,  but  either  of  them  capable  of  holding 
a  goodly  core  of  heat.  Perhaps  no  arrangement  above  the  fire  will  ever 
be  found  more  picturesque  than  the  narrow  high  shelf  and  the  tiny  Jaco- 
bean cupboards  and  racks  above  it  for  the  display  of  china  too  precious  or 
too  long -descended  for  daily  use ;  in  the  centre  the  mantel  mirror  with 
bevelled  edges,  and  smaller  bits  of  mirror  behind  the  open  racks,  again 
with  the  bevelled  edges,  wrhose  jewel-like  cut  adds  greatly  to  the  brilliancy. 
On  these  open  racks  may  stand  many  oddities  hardly  appropriate  to  other 
rooms:  the  mugs  of  '76,  porcelain  pepper-boxes,  little  old-fashioned  gilded 
decanters  —  all  those  enviable  trifles  that  some  inherit  and  others  "pick 
up."  Such  things  as  the  strange  shell  may  have  place  there  too ;  the  bit 
of  coral  which  some  roving  member  of  the  house  may  have  brought  from 
the  seas  at  the  other  side  of  the  globe ;  a  fantastic  little  idol ;  a  Greek 
jar — now  turned  out  very  satisfactorily  in  our  own  potteries — for  the  sug- 
gestions of  the  room  need  not  be  altogether  those  of  eating  and  drinking, 
since  it  is  a  place  for  an  after-dinner  chat  as  well,  or  a  nap  as  one  stretches 


THE  DINING -ROOM. 


193 


one's  legs  before  the  fire ;  and  a  pleasant  dining-room  invites  many  a  pleas- 
ant loitering  moment  after  breakfast  or  just  before  bedtime  that  no  other 
room  seems  to  suit  quite  so  well.  Over  the  fireplace  here  is  a  place  for 
the  carving  of  mottoes  and  crests  also,  rather  than  elsewhere. 


Modem  Gothic  Diuiug-room. 


The  next  item  of  importance  is  the  floor ;  and  if  one  is  a  convert  to 
the  square  carpet  with  its  border  of  bare  floor  or  parquetry  nowhere  else, 
yet  love  of  cleanliness  will  be  very  apt  to  influence  one  to  such  choice  in 
the  dining-room.  A  handsome  floor  well  laid  is  decidedly  the  best  thing 
for  the  dining-room ;  if  in  a  choice  geometric  design  of  colored  woods,  so 
much  the  better;  but  laid  in  alternate  strips  of  cherry  and  Southern  pine, 
it  is  but  little  more  expensive  than  a  common  floor;  and  if  even  that  is 
unwise  expenditure,  a  hard  pine  floor,  whose  boards  one  selects  one's  self, 
and  so  secures  rich  graining,  can  be  made,  either  oiled  or  varnished,  ex- 
ceedingly attractive.  There  is,  also,  at  about  the  same  cost  as  the  parquet 
flooring  itself,  a  parquet  carpeting  of  wood,  which  is  both  beautiful  and 
enduring.  Over  any  of  these  floors  in  winter  the  drugget  is  to  be  laid, 
dispensed  with  or  not  in  summer  according  to  taste ;  sometimes  an  article 
heavy  enough  to  lie  flatly  by  its  own  weight;  sometimes  held  in  place  by 
very  long  nails,  that  have  holes  bored  in  the  floor  and  lined  with  metal, 
like  a  caster  socket,  to  receive  them ;  sometimes  merely  a  square  of  bock- 
ing  stamped  to  imitate  the  India  rugs  —  in  all  cases  easily  taken  up  for 
shaking.    If,  however,  the  furnisher  prefers  an  entire  carpet,  she  should 

13 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


remember,  in  selecting  it,  the  old  house -keeper's  saying  that  green  eats 
grease,  drab  eats  dirt,  but  red  eats  a  hole  in  the  pocket.  A  crimson  car- 
pet certainly,  in  connection  with  old  mahogany  and  its  winy  stains,  gives 
a  sense  of  warmth  and  luxury  that  is  very  desirable ;  but  it  is  to  be  had — 
unless  one  can  renew  the  carpet  frequently — only  at  the  expense  of  one's 
good  name  as  house-keeper,  for  there  is  not  the  mark  of  a  careless  drop,  a 
fallen  morsel,  a  spot,  a  speck,  that  will  not  be  visible  in  all  lights,  at  all 
times,  to  all  people.  Crimson,  although  so  handsome,  is  a  bad  color  for 
convenience  to  the  house-keeper  anywhere,  but  in  the  dining-room  it  will 
end  by  breaking  her  heart. 

Much  variety  can  be  given  the  room  through  the  carpet.  Many  peo- 
ple, doubtful  of  their  taste,  in  order  to  be  sure  of  getting  something  not 
to  be  found  fault  with,  furnish  all  in  one  suit  of  color ;  if  the  walls  are 
brown,  the  carpet  will  be  brown  too,  and  the .  upholstery  brown  as  well. 
But  that  secures  only  a  stiff  monotony,  perpetual  recurrence  of  one  note ; 
and  it  is  better  to  have  harmony  than  uniformity.  If  upon  one's  walls 
the  paper  be  of  a  bluish  slaty  gray,  relieved,  as  it  may  be,  with  outlines  of 
dull  Indian  red,  the  red  giving  the  gray  a  yet  bluer  tinge,  the  bluish  gray 
giving  the  red  an  orange  tinge,  a  carpet  of  royal  purple,  the  combination 
of  the  two  colors,  will  meet  every  wish,  and  will  make  warmth  and  vari- 
ety ;  and  the  same  carpet  may  be  used  with  citrine-colored  walls.  Again, 
with  a  paper  of  pale  azure  and  delicate  lemon -color,  the  rich  peacock- 
green  may  predominate  in  the  carpet ;  and  with  any  of  the  reds  the  usual 
Turkish  or  India  mats,  of  deep  blues  and  dull  crimsons  and  innumerable 
dingy  broken  tints,  will  accord.  In  truth,  a  little  experiment  will  evolve 
undreamed-of  harmonies,  and  the  more  they  elude  the  eyesight  and  af- 
fect the  sensation,  the  better  the  result.  The  distinction  between  a  room 
where  these  harmonies  in  difference  have  been  sought  out  and  one  where 
the  uniform  color  covers  everything  is  that  between  true  homeliness  and 
cheer  and  flat  dulness.  Whatever  the  carpet  is,  the  curtains,  unless  they 
are  of  lace,  should  carry  up  its  idea ;  in  the  dining-room  they  need  to  fall 
in  heavy  folds  and  afford  a  rather  subdued  light.  The  man  that  built 
his  house  in  order  to  frame  his  windows  probably  felt  that  he  had  fur- 
nished his  rooms  when  he  had  draped  those  windows ;  and  carpets  and 
curtains  certainly  go  a  long  way  in  the  furnishing.  But  if  the  dining- 
room  be  also  the  breakfast-room,  the  curtains  should  be  so  hung  that 
they  may  then  be  pulled  aside  to  let  in  all  the  morning  sun,  which  at 
breakfast  seems  to  give  a  benediction  to  the  day.  The  possession  of  that 
morning  sun  is  the  chief  element  in  the  location  of  the  dining-room.  If 
there  are  beautiful  views,  they  may  be  spared  to  other  rooms ;  one  does 
not  need  further  beautiful  views  at  a  table  covered  with  sparkling  silver 


THE  DINING-ROOM. 


195 


and  gay  china,  loaded  with  tempting  dishes,  and  surrounded  with  loved 
faces. 

As  for  the  walls  of  the  dining-room,  the  rich  warm  colors  are  the  best, 
and  there  should  be  great  care  in  selecting  the  papers,  that,  while  rich, 
they  may  be  also  elegant ;  the  leather  dadoes  are  handsome  here,  and  friezes 
of  decorative  paper  just  under  the  ceiling,  which,  by -the -way,  should  be 
toned  down  from  very  dazzling  white  into  the  first  shade  of  the  chosen  at- 
mosphere of  the  room.  If  one  may  have  gilding  in  the  paper  anywhere, 
one  may  have  it  in  the  dining-room,  for  that  is  the  sole  place  where  it  can 
be  used  to  much  purpose,  and  it  adds  to  the  desired  idea  of  richness  there. 
Everywhere  else  gilding  is  only  to  be  used  to  enhance  the  effect  of  beauty, 
to  throw  up  lights,  to  point  out  contrasts.  But  in  fine  patterns  of  gilded 
mosses,  close  reticulation  of  leaves  and  lines,  or  a  diaper  of  gold -work,  it 
gives  valuable  aid  to  the  dining-room,  especially  if  the  room  be  on  the 
dark  side  of  the  house,  supplying  a  light  of  its  own  from  the  walls,  as  it 
were,  independent  of  the  window  light — a  sort  of  self-radiation  simulating 
sunshine  where  there  is  none.  And  a  gilded  background  is  frequently  not 
amiss  in  setting  off  such  pictures  as  one  may  have  upon  the  walls. 

It  has  been  the  custom  to  have  pictures  of  still-life  in  the  dining-room 
— of  game,  fish,  fruit.  But,  for  our  own  part,  the  perpetual  reminder  of 
dead  flesh  and  murderous  propensities  is  not  agreeable  at  table;  and  the 
habit  of  having  on  the  wall  those  paintings  of  fish  hanging  from  their 
nail,  with  all  their  beautiful  dying  colors,  seems  no  better  than  the  barbar- 
ous Eastern  custom  of  carrying  the  live  fish  swimming  in  his  tank  around 
the  table  for  every  guest  to  see,  and  serving  him  twenty  minutes  after- 
ward in  his  sauces.  There  are  many  who  think  the  dining-room  the  best 
place  for  portraits.  We  have  already  expressed  our  preference  for  them 
in  the  hall ;  but  if  one  is  blessed  with  some  generations  of  family  por- 
traits, the  last  generation  may  well  hang  on  the  dining-room  wall,  looking 
down  on  the  daily  meeting  of  the  children  and  grandchildren  of  those 
that  they  represent.  The  dining-room  is  an  excellent  place  for  pictures 
of  a  curious  nature,  and  those  involving  memorabilia;  for,  besides  their 
pictorial  office,  they  serve  to  stimulate  the  conversation  which  is  so  neces- 
sary to  a  cheerful  meal,  and  make  a  groundwork  for  general  observation 
among  guests  newly  met,  or  with  but  little  in  common. 

As  the  dining-room  represents  all  the  banqueting  of  its  ancient  orig- 
inal, the  great  hall,  its  furniture  needs  to  be  solid  and  heavy.  The  dining- 
table  should  be  thoroughly  substantial ;  and  lately  so  much  attention  has 
been  directed  to  this  need,  that  stout  articles,  resting  on  a  good  central 
pier,  or  on  their  own  four  legs,  are  now  superseding  the  flimsy  affairs  on 
which  no  dish  has  ever  been  felt  quite  secure  from  disaster.    This  table 


190 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


needs  to  be  of  generous  size,  that  it  may  not  be  suspected  of  any  niggard- 
liness ;  but  its  shape  is  a  matter  of  taste — a  square,  or  a  circle  when  closed, 
opening  into  an  oval  on  extension.  If  the  table  is  of  handsome  wood  and 
manufacture,  finely  carved  and  turned,  it  needs  no  cloth  when  not  in  use ; 
but  a  plain  table  under  a  cloth  corresponding  to  the  prevailing  colors, 
with  some  silver  or  china  dish  set  upon  it,  adds  as  much  to  the  appearance 
of  the  room  as  the  noble  carved  work  could.  The  house-keeper  should 
always  have  some  very  long  and  narrow  napkins,  fringed,  and  banded  or 
embroidered  at  both  ends,  to  lay  across  this  cloth  and  fall  on  either  side, 
on  which  to  set  a  platter  of  fruit  or  a  basket  of  cakes  or  a  cup  of  tea,  for 
some  special  purpose,  and  so  spare  the  larger  cloth. 

The  next  requisite  is  the  sideboard ;  and  here  one  must  choose,  of 
course,  according  to  the  style  of  the  rest  of  the  furniture,  the  more  mas- 
sive and  capacious  the  fitter  for  its  purpose.  The  "  old-fashioned  "  nonde- 
script kind,  now  in  so  much  request,  is  supplied  with  deep  drawers  for 
bottles,  and  long  drawers  for  knives,  and  square  drawers  for  damask, 
countless  cupboards  for  dainties,  and  shelves  for  display.  The  Gothic 
shapes  seem  more  appropriate  to  the  dining-room  than  any  other,  from 
their  heavy  and  solid  character;  indeed,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  furnish 
a  drawing-room  in  the  Gothic  that  it  shall  not  seem  wiser,  when  all  is 
done,  to  use  as  a  dining-room.  Another  appurtenance  of  the  room  is  the 
carving-table  at  one  side  or  in  a  corner,  to  which  the  heavier  joints  are 
sometimes  removed  to  be  carved  by  a  servant.  The  carving  can,  however, 
be  done  on  the  top  of  a  dinner-wagon — a  rectangular  piece  of  furniture 
consisting  of  two  or  three  open  shelves  on  which  cold  dishes  are  left.  A 
butler's  tray  and  trestle,  in  which  the  plates  and  knives  that  have  been 
used  are  the  more  quickly  collected  and  carried  away,  is  also  very  useful 
for  temporary  purposes  in  a  dining-room. 

The  chairs  should  be  strong  and  comfortable  ones,  with  broad  seats 
and  high  backs,  those  of  the  host  and  hostess  a  very  little  higher  and 
more  throne -like  than  the  others,  for  the  convenience  of  commanding 
the  situation.  They  are  best  upholstered  in  morocco;  for  those  that  can- 
not afford  morocco  or  leather,  the  enamelled  cloth  will  answer,  although 
the  wear  that  there  is  in  morocco  makes  it  the  cheaper  in  the  end.  It  is 
to  be  remembered  that  chairs  are  not  merely  conveniences  for  sitting  at 
table,  but  for  being  at  ease  in  that  posture.  There  must  be  such  a  num- 
ber of  them  that  the  rest  of  the  room  will  not  look  stripped  when  the 
table  is  full. 

The  chief  ornament  of  the  dining-room,  however,  will  always  be  the 
buffet,  whether  it  stands  in  a  corner  or  on  the  dead  wall,  whether  it  is  a 
square  Queen  Anne,  or  a  pointed  Gothic,  or  a  piece  of  Eococo.  Behind 


THE  DINING-ROOM. 


197 


its  glass  doors  are  to  be  set  an  array  of  gay  colors  in  glittering  china, 
whole  sets  and  odd  pieces,  the  ancient  painted  pnnch-bowl — if  one  is  so 
lucky  as  to  have  it — green  hock  glasses,  ruby  finger-glasses,  specimens  of 
majolica,  all  the  silver  not  in  daily  wear,  and  any  gold -washed  articles; 
the  brilliancy  of  all  which  will  be  duplicated  if  little  mirrors  line  the 
back  of  the  shelves.  The  buffet  is  not  always  glazed,  although  properly  so 
for  the  sake  of  simplifying  household  duties ;  but  some  of  the  finest  are 
entirely  open  with  all  their  choice  burden.  There  should  be,  besides,  a 
china  closet,  for  the  articles  all  the  time  in  use,  adjoining  the  dining-room, 
together  with  the  butler's  pantry ;  for  the  buffet,  once  handsomely  filled, 
presents  too  fine  an  array  to  be  lightly  disturbed  ;  in  the  old  days  it  was 
for  the  delectation  of  the  eyes  almost  altogether,  and,  as  wTe  have  seen, 
was  sometimes  presented  intact  with  all  its  burden  to  the  individual  in 
whose  honor  it  was  erected. 

In  conclusion,  the  mistress  of  the  house  will  do  well  to  save  expense, 
as  we  have  hinted,  in  her  parlors,  her  boudoir,  her  "  best  chamber,"  in 
order  to  have  her  table-linen  white  and  sufficient,  her  silver  plenty,  her 
glass  lustrous  and  engraved,  her  china  attractive  to  the  eye,  since  cheer- 
fulness and  beauty  here  have  great  power  over  cheerfulness  and  beauty 
elsewhere,  the  dining-room  being  in  some  measure  the  laboratory  of  the 
house. 


198 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XXXII. 

THE  BOUDOIR  AND  SITTING-ROOM. 

IT  seems  expedient  that  most  of  the  other  rooms  of  the  house  should  be 
furnished  after  the  conventional  system  of  society,  that  is,  on  a  scheme 
of  general  custom,  with  only  the  difference  of  individual  taste  and  means. 
But  the  boudoir  is  the  one  place  from  which  the  conventional  can  be  en- 
tirely banished,  where  eccentricity  can  be  indulged,  and  where  the  dweller 
may  intrench  herself  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  her  pet  idiosyncrasies.  If 
she  wishes  the  room  severe  as  an  oratory,  she  has  the  right  to  order  it ; 
and  if  she  prefers  to  represent  in  it  the  interior  of  a  wigwam,  there  should 
be  nobody  to  gainsay  her,  for  that  sole  corner  of  the  house  is  hers,  and 
not  the  world's,  and  she  is  at  liberty  to  make  it  the  expression  of  all  her 
hidden  preferences.  Its  very  name  expresses  its  private  character,  derived 
as  it  is  from  the  French  verb  bonder,  to  pout,  and  signifying  a  place  for 
retirement  when  the  world  has  put  on  an  unfriendly  aspect  in  relation  to 
our  especial  sugar -plum,  and  our  temper  has  become  too  much  for  our 
control.  Yet  it  is  in  the  boudoir  that  a  lady  sometimes  receives  her  very 
intimate  friends  of  either  sex  when  she  wishes  their  visit  to  be  undis- 
turbed, and  it  is  not  likely  then  that  temper  interferes  with  the  scene; 
and  therefore  the  room  is  arranged  with  other  views  as  well  as  that  of  the 
comfort  of  pouting  at  one's  ease. 

It  is  only  people  of  exceptional  character  who  will  be  very  likely  to 
make  the  boudoir  anything  exceptional,  for  it  is  frequently  felt  that  its 
name  is  an  affectation  in  this  country,  and  it  will,  as  a  general  thing,  be 
given  the  appearance  which  cannot  meet  with  much  criticism  as  a  lady's 
sitting-room. 

The  boudoir  is  usually  an  up-stairs  room,  adjoining  the  bedchamber 
and  dressing-room,  and  not  too  far  from  the  nursery.  Boudoirs  play  a 
great  part  in  romances,  but  in  the  real  life  of  America,  at  least,  they  are 
sufficiently  rare.  A  bedchamber  and  dressing-room  answer  the  needs  of 
most  of  our  ladies,  and  if  there  is  a  room  to  spare,  it  naturally  becomes  a 
sort  of  family  sitting-room  rather  than  the  private  luxury  of  one  individu- 
al in  the  family.  And  even  if,  when  the  bride  came,  it  was  her  boudoir, 
when  the  babies  came,  she  lost  her  exclusive  control.    As  a  boudoir,  al- 


THE  BOUDOIR  AND  SITTING-ROOM. 


199 


though  there  are  no  restrictions  on  its  furnishing  and  no  laws  to  be  obeyed, 
yet  there  are  certain  habits  which  usually  creep  in  because  comfort  de- 
mands them,  and  the  most  eccentric  spine  has  moments  of  needing  a  cush- 
ioned resting-place.  Thus  we  will  find  in  the  boudoir  the  lounge,  the  com- 
fortable chair  for  one's  self  and  another  for  one's  friend,  the  prie-dieu, 
if  one  is  devout,  and  a  collection  of  rosaries  or  of  other  religious  emblems, 
according  to  one's  creed ;  all  one's  precious  knickknacks  not  quite  nice 
enough  for  the  drawing-room,  or  else  too  personal  in  character  for  that 
more  open  place  —  one's  favorite  books  and  their  shelves,  one's  peculiar 
and  particular  escritoire,  one's  sewing -table  and  work-basket,  one's  own 
easel  and  piano ;  and  we  will  see  that  it  is  a  place  of  soft  colors,  soft  car- 
pets and  curtains,  and  with  the  pictures  that  mean  more  to  one's  self  than 
to  any  one  else  in  the  world. 

We  recall  a  boudoir  which  was  a  small  room  whose  floor  was  laid  in  a 
carpet  of  an  indistinct  figure,  where  the  colors  and  outlines  blended  with 
one  another  like  stuff  that  has  "  run  "  in  the  washing,  although  of  a  some- 
what chintz-like  pattern.  The  wall,  then,  from  cornice  to  moulding,  was 
hung  with  a  chintz  in  paler  tints,  very  nearly  matching  the  idea  of  the 
carpet,  arranged  in  fluted  folds  on  a  cord  stretched  along  the  sides  of  the 
room  at  top  and  bottom ;  from  the  top  the  chintz  was  stretched  over  the 
ceiling,  still  preserving  its  flutings,  all  of  which  met  in  the  centre  round 
the  frosted  silver  knob  from  which  hung  silver  chains  holding  a  low  lamp 
under  a  china  shade  that  matched  the  prevailing  tints  and  pattern.  The 
two  long  windows,  which  opened  on  a  balcony  under  outside  awnings,  had 
no  drapery  of  any  other  sort  than  that  furnished  by  the  woven  sprays  of  a 
wax  plant  and  an  ivy  vine.  Of  course  the  chintz  allowed  no  pictures ; 
but,  in  defiance  of  the  prohibition,  it  was  puckered  away  opposite  the  win- 
dows just  enough  to  frame  a  child's  or  a  cherub's  face  that  peeped  through, 
and  whose  rosy  cheeks  and  blue  eyes  were  only  in  too  much  accord  with 
the  salmon  pinks  and  Nile  blues  of  the  chintz.  The  davenport  and  table 
were  of  ebonized  wood ;  the  rest  of  the  furniture  was  rattan ;  there  was  a 
guitar  in  one  corner,  a  light  cast  on  a  pedestal  in  another,  a  straw  work- 
basket  piled  with  bright  wools ;  and  the  whole  place  was  like  a  little  nest 
cradled  in  sunshine  and  flowers  and  leaves,  and  charming  as  a  place  could 
be  without  an  atom  of  repose  about  it.  Nevertheless,  nothing  could  be 
more  dangerous  than  such  a  room  for  all  the  chances  of  fire ;  and  for  this 
reason  its  owner  never  pretended  to  light  the  pretty  lamp  there,  and  if  she 
used  it  after  nightfall,  used  it  for  reveries  in  the  dusk.  It  was  heated 
through  a  register  in  the  floor. 

Of  course  no  such  furnishing  would  be  suitable  for  the  room  when 
used  as  the  family  sitting-room.    In  that  room  lamps,  or  candles,  or  gas 


200 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


must  be  burned,  and  there  is  a  great  deal  of  wear  to  which  everything 
is  subjected ;  so  that  fancy  gives  way  there  to  utility.  Here,  then,  colors 
and  fabrics  that  Avill  endure  are  to  be  chosen,  and  articles  of  furniture 
that  will  not  fall  to  pieces  before  the  assaults  of  little  tumbling  and  climb- 
ing legs.  But  it  is  not  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  because  the  room  has 
now  become  the  family  sitting-room,  not  open  to  all  the  world,  therefore 
its  appearance  is  a  matter  of  secondaiy  consequence,  and  anything  will 
do  here  that  will  not  do  elsewhere.  It  is  the  home  room,  the  inner  shrine, 
and  it  must  be  as  agreeable  to  the  soul  and  senses  as  skill  can  make  it,  for 
here  natures  will  be  formed  and  here  memories  will  return.  And  it  is 
even  desirable,  whenever  the  purse  allows,  that  the  outfit  should  be  just 
line  enough  to  make  the  children  now  and  then  aware  that  they  are  ladies 
and  gentlemen,  even  if  occasional  lapses  into  native  animalism  do  make 
refurnishing  necessary  once  in  a  while. 

There  are  English  decorative  papers,  to  be  had  of  any  dealer  in  the 
larger  cities  at  very  easy  prices,  for  the  walls  of  this  sitting-room  ;  none 
of  the  satin-faced  glaring  papers  covered  with  stripes  or  bunched  about  in 
bouquets,  but  those  where  geometric  arabesques,  or  else  the  interwoven 
figures  of  idealized  boughs  and  branches  on  idealized  backgrounds,  make 
the  very  walls  objects  of  beauty.  Here,  certainly,  the  carpet  should  not 
cover  the  entire  floor — -in  order  that  it  may  be  the  more  frequently  and 
easily  removed  and  shaken,  and  put  altogether  out  of  the  way  for  certain 
games  of  the  children.  There  should  be  a  low  broad  lounge,  not  too  good 
for  little  boots  to  kick;  large  low  tables  with  books  and  work;  good  secre- 
taires, with  lights  and  inkstands  and  sketching-boards ;  comfortable  seats 
and  hassocks;  an  especially  easy  chair  for  the  head  of  the  house  when 
he  honors  the  place  with  his  slippered  presence ;  cheerful  pictures ;  and 
if  used  at  all  as  a  school-room,  as  when  the  children  are  taught  at  home, 
globes,  piano,  a  canterbury  for  loose  music,  and  stands  to  hold  a  pair  of 
huge  slates  folding  like  a  portfolio :  with  all  this  some  vivid  dashes  of 
color,  a  Japanese  scroll  or  two  to  take  the  young  fancy  travelling,  a  hos- 
pitable hearth,  some  growing  plants,  plenty  of  sunshine,  and  always  neat- 
ness, if  not  always  order.  Further  refinements,  but  none  ever  too  fine  for 
free  and  daily  use,  will  be  added  here  according  to  the  power  or  the  wis- 
dom of  the  furnisher.  For  it  will  require  but  little  experience  to  recog- 
nize that  this  room  should  always  be  a  pleasant  and  inviting  one,  both  as 
to  outlook  and  interior,  since  here  a  good  portion  of  the  family  life  passes, 
and  the  children  are  more  apt  to  remember  it  as  the  nucleus  of  home  than 
rich  dining-room  or  splendid  parlors,  or  even  the  mother's  room  itself.  It 
is  a  place  where,  in  large  measure,  early  surroundings  help  to  create  life- 
long prejudices  and  tastes,  and  the  love  of  beauty  should  be  fed  and  nur- 


THE  BOUDOIR  AND  SITTING-ROOM. 


201 


tured  and  satisfied  here  as  much  as  in  the  most  superb  saloons,  for  the 
ability  to  do  that  is  not  at  all  a  question  of  cost,  but  of  knowledge  and 
time  and  skill. 

Not  seldom,  however,  it  is  the  dining-room  which  is  used  as  the  family 
sitting-room.  But  although  that  is  a  pleasant  place  to  loiter  in,  it  is  but  a 
poor  plan,  when  it  can  be  avoided,  to  use  it  for  any  but  its  own  purposes. 
The  maid  coming  in  to  lay  the  cloth  for  dinner  or  tea  creates  an  unde- 


Settee  in  Modern  Gothic. 


sirable  confusion ;  books  and  work  are  in  danger  of  being  soiled  by  unfit 
neighborhood  ;  and  on  occasions  when  the  children  are  not  wanted  in  the 
dining-room,  there  is  no  convenient  place  for  their  retirement.  Besides, 
the  care  which  the  very  great  majority  of  American  mothers  take  of  their 
children  makes  the  sitting-room  almost  a  nursery,  or  else  obliges  it  to  ad- 
join the  night  nursery,  and  that  is  out  of  the  question  in  a  dining-room  of 
even  the  least  pretension. 

It  is,  therefore,  when  the  space  can  be  afforded  in  the  house,  and  on 
winter  days  the  extra  fire  can  be  had  to  warm  it,  better  to  have  a  sitting- 
room  for  general  family  use  separate  from  dining-room  and  parlors ;  and 
where  there  is  not  ground-room  enough,  it  will  be  found  nearly  as  con- 
venient, and  much  more  private,  when  up  a  flight  of  stairs,  than  when  on 


202 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


the  same  floor  with  the  hall -door.  Privacy  is,  after  all,  a  requisite  of 
this  room,  where  circumstances  often  oblige  one  to  be  in  a  very  demi- 
toilet,  and  where,  let  the  house-maid  do  her  duty  ever  so  thoroughly,  there 
is  likely  to  be  more  or  less  litter  of  the  hour.  It  should  be  a  room  nice 
enough  for  the  girl's  embroidery  to  be  about  in  it,  and  not  so  nice  that 
the  boy's  carving  would  be  unbearable  rubbish  there ;  a  room  to  be  kept 
so  that  the  boys  shall  always  remember  that  there  stands  the  mother's 
throne,  and  that  the  girls  can  always  make  a  little  brighter  to  welcome 
the  father ;  a  room  that  should  be  made  sacred  to  smiles,  a  happy  room 
for  shelter,  no  matter  what  gayety,  or  trouble,  or  confusion  goes  on  in  the 
house  elsewhere ;  a  room  that  is  the  very  antipodes,  in  short,  of  the  bou- 
doir in  its  original  uses :  since  the  latter,  in  spite  of  its  beauty  and  its 
comforts,  meets  but  a  selfish  need,  but  the  other  opens  its  doors  in  self- 
abandonment  till  sybaritic  enjoyment  of  solitude  and  a  novel  is  lost  in  the 
life  of  the  household. 


THE  BEDROOM. 


203 


XXXIII. 

THE  BEDROOM. 

THE  first  thing  to  be  attended  to  in  a  bedroom  is  the  possession  of  good 
air,  for  we  are  singularly  liable  to  lie  oblivious  and  submit  to  the 
slow  murder  that  poisons  the  blood  in  most  sleeping -rooms.  If  we  are 
building  our  own  house,  we  shall  secure  this  by  having 
the  rooms  of  the  sleeping  floors  loftier  than  those  below, 
and  by  hanging  our  windows  there  so  that  they  will  let 
down  from  the  top.  The  next  consideration  is  to  obtain 
sunshine,  for  it  is  best  to  have  the  sun  in  every  sleeping- 
room  during  some  portion  of  the  day ;  and  care  in  orient- 
ing the  house  to  this  end,  rather  than  heedlessly  facing 
it  just  as  its  neighbors  face,  can  always  secure  this  sun. 
Old  wisdom  has  already  found  out  the  advantage : 

"  Dove  non  entra  il  sole, 
Entra  il  dottore." 

After  these  two  essentials  of  the  comfort  of  the  bed- 
chamber have  been  dismissed,  proper  attention  to  the 
floor  is  as  important  on  the  score  of  health ;  and  we  a  Medieval  washing- 
should  see  that  it  is  either  of  hard  wood  polished,  or  of 
common  spruce  ornamentally  painted  round  the  edges,  so  that  the  carpets 
need  to  be  little  more  than  rugs,  and  yet  shall  keep  the  place  comfortable 
to  the  feet.  The  best  parts  of  the  Brussels  that  has  had  its  day  down- 
stairs, with  a  plain  border  of  felt  or  baize,  make  very  good  and  useful 
chamber  carpets  to  those  who  wish  to  avoid  expense. 

The  next  thing  to  be  remembered  in  the  bedroom  is  the  wall.  There 
has  been  a  great  deal  said  about  the  necessity  of  having  a  pattern  of  paper 
or  stencil  there  which  shall  not  be  likely  to  torment  the  eye  of  a  fevered 
patient,  as  every  sleeping -room  is  liable  to  be  also  at  some  time  a  sick- 
room. But  we  feel  assured  that  there  is  no  pattern  to  be  devised  by 
the  ingenuity  of  man  which  the  eye  of  a  sick  person  cannot  torture  into 
any  fantastic  shape  that  suits  his  heated  brain ;  and  so  we  think  we  had 
better  secure  beauty  for  our  healthy  moments,  and  leave  it  to  work  its 


204 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


own  especial  charm  upon  our  sick  ones.  "  Variety  of  form  and  brilliancy 
of  color  in  the  objects  presented  to  patients,"  says  Florence  Nightingale, 
"  are  actual  means  of  recovery." 


Oxford  Washing-stand. 

The  aspect  of  the  bedroom  in  regard  to  the  points  of  the  compass  may 
perhaps  determine  us  a  little  in  our  choice  of  colors  there,  other  things 
being  equal.  If  it  is  a  south  room,  in  which  the  sunshine  falls  freely,  we 
do  not  wish  to  add  to  that  illumination,  but  prefer,  while  deriving  all  the 
benefit  of  its  presence,  somewhat  to  tone  down  its  dazzle.  The  violets 
and  deep  blues  and  reds  all  absorb  heat,  while  white  does  not.  Thus  we 
will  not  put  a  deep  violet  or  a  red  shade  on  our  southern  chamber,  but 
will  reserve  them  to  warm  the  chill  sides  of  the  north  rooms,  and  use  on 
our  southern  walls  those  tints  that  are  white  just  off  color,  with  the  cool 
gray-greens  and  sea-blues,  never  using  anywhere  the  bright  apple-greens, 
into  which  the  poison  of  copper  and  arsenic  enters  so  freely  as  to  be  able 
to  disperse  itself  into  the  system  of  the  sleeper.  The  virulence  of  this 
poison  was  shown  us  experimentally  the  other  day,  when  a  friend  of  ours 
had  found  a  rat  dead  at  the  foot  of  a  bordering  of  rich  green  velvet  paper 
which  he  had  been  nibbling.  Other  papers  of  the  undecided  tints,  the 
figure,  so  far  as  it  may  be  called  a  figure,  being  composed  of  varying 
shades  of  the  same  color,  giving  an  atmospheric  softness  under  the  one 
general  bloom-color,  are  excellent  for  bedrooms,  and  in  general  any  light 
paper  there  is  better  than  any  dark  one.  If  the  rooms  are  low,  and  are 
already  provided  with  a  wooden  moulding  or  cornice  under  the  ceiling,  a 


THE  BEDROOM. 


205 


paper  border  may  be  dispensed  with ;  but  if  there  is  no  cornice,  some  sort 
of  a  border  is  necessary  to  complete  the  wall ;  but  it  is  to  be  used  only  at 
top  and  bottom,  and  not  down  the  sides  at  the  corners  of  the  room.  If 
the  room  is  high-studded  enough  to  permit  it,  the  lower  portion  of  the 
paper  may  be  a  close  diaper  or  arabesque  set  between  narrow  and  precise 
edges,  and  above  that  a  border,  some  foot  and  a  half  in  depth,  of  freer 
design  —  branches  of  leaves,  wheat-ears,  and  corn-flowers  blowing  in  the 
wind,  and  other  natural  representations ;  sometimes  even  of  natural  life, 
as  the  flashing  of  hawks'  wings  and  herons',  and  the  half -guessed  leaping 
of  hounds  through  the  brakes,  the  effect  being  novel  and  not  unpleasant, 
and,  in  case  of  sickness,  amusing  rather  than  fatiguing  the  patient's  eye, 
with  some  likelihood  of  finally  inducing  sleep  as  the  eye  wanders  along 
the  track  of  the  pattern.  Under  this  treatment  the  pictures  of  the  room 
will  be  hung  upon  the  diapered  portion  suspended  from  nails  in  its  nar- 
row upper  edging,  and  there  will  be  the  brackets  for  such  busts  and  stat- 
uettes as  adorn  the  place. 

The  wood-work  of  the  room  is  best  painted  in  two  or  three  tints  of 
the  same  color  as  the 
paper,  possibly  a  little 
more  decided,  unless  it 


is 


a  harmonizing  hard 


wood,  which,  however, 
is  unlikely  to  be  the 
case. 

For  furniture,  the 
article  of  first  impor- 
tance in  a  bedroom  is 
naturally  the  bed.  It 
has  been  the  habit, 
since  the  days  when 
the  bedroom  was  al- 
most a  room  curtained 
off  from  the  great  hall, 
to  have  the  bed  a  large 
and  prominent  object. 
We  have  seen  what  a 
splendid  erection  it  be- 
came in  the  days  of  the 
Eenaissance,  and  we  do  not  know  why  it  should  now  be  stripped  of  all  its 
stateliness.  There  is  always  a  little  fluctuating  fashion  about  all  articles 
in  the  cabinet-makers'  shops.    Yesterday  they  sold  you  the  bedstead  with 


Modem  Gothic  Bedstead. 


206 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


the  high  head-board  as  the  style,  to-day  they  sell  it  with  the  low  one,  and 
to-morrow  the  pendulum  of  change  will  swing  back  again.  But  here  again 
fashion  has  no  more  right  to  intrude  than  it  has  to  intrude  upon  the  foun- 
dations of  the  house.  Out  of  regard  to  its  ancestry,  to  the  safety  of  the  pil- 
lows, and  to  the  security  of  the  sleep- 
er from  draughts,  the  head-board  of 
the  bed  should  always  be  high ;  and 
the  bed  being  the  chief  thing  for 
which  the  bedroom  exists,  it  should 
be  made  evident  that  it  is  the  chief 
thing.  It  is  throwing  away  words  to 
say  that  a  bed  is  just  as  comfortable 
whatever  its  shape.  A  bed  is  not  as 
comfortable  if  the  pillows  are  forever 
slipping  off  backward,  or  are  obliged 
to  lean  against  the  wall,  liable  to  re- 
ceive stains  from  the  paper,  and  to 
become  the  highway  of  spiders  and 
other  wall  vermin,  or  if  there  is  noth- 
ing to  cut  off  the  air  that  passes  from 
window  to  door  or  chimney,  in  spite 
of  the  best  of  carpenters.  Nor,  again, 


is  it  so  comfortable  as  it  might  be  if 
the  foot-board  rises  so  high  as  to  shut 
off  any  view  of  any  portion  of  the 
room ;  and  nothing  is  so  maddening 
to  patients  as  the  smuggling  of  secrets  among  the  nurses  behind  the 
shelter  of  the  high  foot -board.  Long  use  has  determined  the  best  bal- 
ance of  parts  for  the  bedstead,  and  fashion  should  have  no  more  to  do 
with  it  than  to  mould  those  existing  parts  into  the  shape  of  the  separate 
styles.  A  broad,  long,  low  bed,  with  plenty  of  light  coverings  and  soft 
and  hard  pillows,  is  the  best  to  be  had — undue  height  giving  a  sense  of 
insecurity.  There  should  be,  in  complete  equipment,  a  pretty  down  duvet 
tossed  on  the  white  quilt,  and  a  little  case  for  the  night-dress,  of  orna- 
mental work  matching  the  color  of  the  other  fittings,  if  color  is  used.  If 
one  desires  a  slight  hanging  of  curtains  suspended  from  an  arrow  in  the 
cornice  and  falling  behind  the  head-board  and  at  either  side  of  the  head, 
still  more  surely  to  exclude  draughts,  it  is  both  admissible  and  ornamental. 
On  the  floor  beside  the  bed  a  large  white  lamb's- wool  mat  is  a  very  pleas- 
ant thing  both  to  the  feet  and  vision.  The  wood-work  of  the  bed  is  at 
the  buyer's  choice,  but  simplicity  is  best  in  its  ornamentation,  using  rather 


Modern  Gothic  Dressing-table. 


THE  BEDROOM. 


207 


a  few  noble  outlines  than  any  great  amount  of  rich  detail — the  rich  detail, 
moreover,  lending  itself  with  such  wonderful  ease  to  nightmares  and  de- 
lirium that  it  sometimes  seems  as  if  the  spirit  of  evil  were  in  the  designer. 
Nothing,  for  instance,  could  be  closer  to  the  most  fearful  delirium  than  the 
writhings  and  contortions  of  the  gods  and  dragons  and  demons  in  the 
miraculous  carving  of  some  of  the  Japanese  bedsteads.  Brass  bedsteads 
are  now  in  much  use,  made  of  brass  rods  in  a  simple  open  filigree,  and 
they  are  strong  and  clean  and  handsome ;  the  shape,  of  course,  in  all  varie- 
ties. It  is  these  varieties  of  shape  for  which  one  is  called  to  pay  more 
than  for  the  material  of  the  construction. 

The  curtains  of  the  windows  of  the 
bedroom  must  be  of  some  washable  ma- 
terial— of  chintz,  of  the  more  delicate 
muslins — and  if  of  the  white  or  dotted 
muslin,  with  a  ribbon  inserted  in  the 
broad  hem ;  under  these,  white  linen 
shades. 

The  next  requisite  of  the  bedroom 
is  a  long  glass,  preferably  a  swinging 
cheval-glass,  for  the  bedroom  is  usually 
the  dressing-room,  and  even  when  it  is 
not,  a  mirror  is  a  necessity.  Sometimes 
the  mirror  in  the  dressing-case  is  quite 
sufficient.  It  should  always  hang  be- 
tween the  windows,  that  light  may  be 
thrown  on  the  object  to  be  reflected. 
In  England,  particularly  in  London 
lodging-houses,  it  is  a  frequent  custom 
to  stand  the  small  chest  of  drawers  with 
the  glass  on  it — it  is  never  called  a  bu- 
reau there,  by-the-way — directly  against 
a  window,  probably  with  an  idea  of  se- 
curing the  light  around  its  sides  and 
over  the  top,  although  the  result  is  not 
fortunate,  and  the  outside  appearance 
is  very  unfortunate. 

A  lounge  is  a  necessary  appurtenance  of  the  bedchamber,  in  order  to 
spare  the  bed  in  the  daytime ;  and  there  must  be  easy-chairs  and  foot- 
stools, toilet -table  and  wash-stand  and  service,  unless  there  is  a  dress- 
ing-room for  these ;  and  a  loftier  chest  of  drawers  with  its  innumerable 
compartments  and  its  bronzed  handles — brass,  if  the  bedstead  be  of  brass 


Modern  Gothic  Deal  Chest  of  Drawers. 


208 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


— is  of  great  value.  The  brasses  of  an  open  fireplace  will  always  increase 
the  lightness  and  brightness  of  the  room  ;  and  an  open  fireplace  there 
should  be  in  every  bedroom  where  it  is  practicable,  for  purposes  of  ven- 
tilation, for  taking  the  chill  off  the  air  in  excessively  cold  weather,  and 
for  use  in  sickness  —  a  rug,  of  course,  lying  before  it.  Muslin  curtains, 
suspended  from  a  pretty  ornament  close  beneath  the  ceiling,  falling  and 
parting  over  the  toilet- table,  are  a  pleasant  finish  to  that  article,  and 
have  been  in  use  for  hundreds  of  years ;  they  save  the  glass  from  dust 
and  specks,  and  are  drawn  before  it,  according  to  ancient  usage,  on  occa- 
sion of  a  death  in  the  family.    The  wash-stand,  if  it  has  a  marble  top, 


Modern  Gothic  Wardrobe. 


should  be  fitted  with  soft  covers  to  prevent  breakage  and  noise;  the 
wooden  top  is  better  in  some  respects,  but  it  soon  looks  very  bad  from  the 
soap-and-water  stains.  There  should  be  a  washable  square  of  carpet  of 
some  thick  white  material,  bound  with  the  same  color  as  the  carpet  or  the 
general  tint  or  contrast  of  the  room,  under  the  foot  or  tin  bath ;  and  the 
china  of  the  wash-stand  and  the  toilet-table  should  be  of  one  pattern.  A 
protection  to  the  wall  from  splashing  is  generally  made  with  ornamental 
muslins  and  ribbons;  but  others  prefer  to  paper  about  the  wash-stand 
with  the  thick  tile  papers  which  can  be  spattered  without  injury,  and  are 
almost  indestructible.    If  there  is  no  dressing-room,  a  screen  is  a  very  de- 


THE  BEDROOM. 


209 


sirable  part  of  the  bedroom  furniture,  of  sufficient  height  and  number  of 
valves  to  completely  enclose  the  person  behind  it.  This  screen  may  be 
made  up  at  home,  with  the  help  of  a  carpenter,  in  a  simple  frame  like 
that  of  a  common  clothes-horse,  although  with  exceedingly  slender  sticks 
and  long  and  narrow  leaves,  and  with  stout  cotton  or  silk  stretched  over 
it ;  on  this  base  all  sorts  of  pictures  and  bits  of  color  are  to  be  carefully 
arranged  with  gum-arabic,  the  interstices  painted  in  with  bright  flowers 
and  butterflies  and  birds'  wings,  the  whole  afterward  sized  over  and  var- 
nished in  a  suitable  tone. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  if  there  should  be  no  closet,  there  must  be  a 
wardrobe,  but  it  is  best  in  a  recess ;  and  if  there  is  any  room  left,  a  little 
rack  for  books,  with  a  simple  writing  -  desk  beneath  it,  will  be  found  a 
great  convenience.  As  for  the  pictures  in  the  bedroom,  they  will  usually 
be  those  that  have  some  especial  value  to  us  independently  of  their 
beauty. 

14: 


210 

i 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


XXXIV. 

THE  LIBRARY. 

AS  soon  as  we  have  collected  books  enough  to  be  in  the  way  else- 
where, and  have  any  closet  to  hold  them,  we  line  that  little  place 
with  shelves  and  call  it  the  "library,"  and  are  then  rather  ashamed  of  our- 
selves, as  if  we  were  making  a  pretension  and  the  whole  thing  were  an 
affectation,  and  feel  inclined  to  call  it  the  study  instead — the  school-room, 
the  office.  Yet  a  library  is  as  essential  to  every  house  where  there  is  cult- 
ure or  refinement  or  reading  as  a  parlor  is ;  and  if  there  is  neither  room 
nor  means  sufficient  for  a  large  one,  there  is  no  reason  for  going  without 
because  a  small  one  is  all  there  is  to  be  had. 

In  many  instances  where  the  family  is  very  fond  of  books  and  their 
belongings,  the  drawing-room  is  given  up  altogether,  and  the  saloon  de- 
voted to  the  library,  or  the  two  are  combined,  with  large  concessions  on 
the  part  of  the  drawing-room.  But  the  little  library  as  a  mere  writing- 
closet,  apart  from  the  drawing-room,  a  place  to  retreat  to  for  a  moment's 
quiet — a  place  in  which  to  answer  notes,  to  audit  accounts — if  it  is  smaller 
than  Mr.  Dick's  room  in  Ilungerford  Market,  is  invaluable.  And  it  gives 
a  sort  of  dignity  to  the  smallest  style  of  house-keeping  to  have  this  altar, 
in  whatever  secluded  corner  or  humble  manner,  set  up  within  its  walls. 

Yet  where  it  is  possible  it  is  best  to  treat  the  library  with  reverence. 
Here  the  masters  of  thought  make  rendezvous ;  here  the  fiery  spirits  of  , 
Milton  and  Byron  entreat  you  ;  here  Shakspeare  makes  you  free  of  this 
world,  and  Dante  of  the  other;  here  History  brings  you  the  past,  and 
Science  pours  out  her  secrets,  and  here  the  great  travellers  of  the  earth 
sit  down  with  you  ;  here  the  gossipers  of  courts  come  and  whisper  to  you 
behind  their  hands ;  and  here  the  lesser  monarchs,  the  crowned  kings  and 
emperors  of  nations,  step  down  from  their  thrones  now  and  then  and  be- 
come your  familiars.  One  remembers  the  dignity  of  one's  guests  here, 
and  one  makes  it  a  fit  place  for  their  reception.  It  is  in  this  view,  as 
well  as  in  the  proprieties  of  the  surroundings  of  abstracted  thought  and 
studious  occupation,  that  the  library  should  be  "  in  sober  livery  clad/' 

The  color  for  a  library,  according  to  this  idea,  which  seems  to  be  the 
prevailing  one,  is,  then,  rather  a  sombre  than  a  bright  one — the  soft  wood 


THE  LIBRARY. 


211 


colors,  the  deep  purples  or  violets,  or,  better  yet,  the  strong  emerald  greens 
and  their  darker  shadows.  As  the  part  of  the  house  chosen  for  it,  when- 
ever its  location  can  be  commanded,  is  on  the  northern  or  the  north-west- 
ern side,  there  is  but  little  lightening  of  the  main  color  with  the  daily  ac- 
tion of  sunshine ;  but  the  windows  need  to  be  large  and  long,  giving  that 
steady  light  where  the  student  is  not  teased  by  sunshine  on  his  books 
and  papers,  yet  draped  with  shades  and  heavily  hanging  curtains  in  order 
that  the  light  may  be  tempered  on  occasion  to  the  eyes  that  frequent  use 
obliges  to  be  careful.  The  walls  should  harmonize,  of  course,  with  the 
dominant  color  wherever  they  are  seen ;  and  nothing  has  a  pleasanter 
effect  on  them  than  a  high  dado  of  the  thick  and  almost  indestructible 
leather-paper  which  seems  like  the  stuffed  leather  wainscots  of  generations 
since. 

For  the  fitting  of  the  book  shelves  and  cases  it  will  be  found,  wherever 
practicable,  rather  the  best  plan  to  have  them  built  into  the  walls,  espe- 
cially if  one  owns  the  house  ;  this  saves  trouble  with  the  carpet,  which  then 
extends  to  the  foot  of  the  cases  as  to  the  wall  of  the  room,  where  a  carpet 


Library,  Louis  XIII. 


is  used,  and  not  the  bare  polished  margin  of  floor  with  rugs ;  and  there  is 
then  no  giving-out  of  the  shelves,  or  tilting  of  this  or  that  support,  or  col- 
lecting of  dust  beneath  them,  as  often  happens  with  movable  bookcases, 
and  they  can  be  made  quite  as  handsome  as  the  others.  These  cases  may 
be  either  with  or  without  doors ;  those  with  doors  being,  of  course,  the 


212 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


more  expensive,  and  giving  better  protection  to  the  hooks  from  dust  and 

But  the  books  seem  more  cold  and  re- 
mote thus  shut  away  behind  glass,  and 
lose  much  of  the  friendly  warmth  and 
companionship  which  they  wear  when 
standing  on  their  shelves  invitingly 
open  and  handy.  The  glass  doors  of 
a  bookcase,  too,  have  a  way  of  slurring 
off  the  light  that  is  sometimes  try- 
ing, and  that  hides  a  good  deal  of  the 
charm  presented  by  regular  rows  of 
books  with  the  lettering  and  gilding 
of  their  backs — a  charm  not  easily  ex- 
plained, but  which  may  bear  some  re- 
lation to  that  love  of  banded  ornament 
— that  is,  ornament  running  in  paral- 
lel lines — which  seems  inherent  among 
those  races  that  have  the  most  natural 
decorative  ability.  A  little  curtain  of 
leather  tacked  on  the  face  of  the  edge 
of  the  shelf  above,  and  falling  just 
over  the  top  of  the  line  of  books  be- 
neath, affords  nearly  as  much  security 
as  glass  doors,  and  will  be  found  a  tolerably  sufficient  protection  from  dust. 
The  leather  can  be  easily  procured  in  strips,  and  can  be  cut  into  scallops 
and  pinked  round  the  edges  at  any  saddler's,  and  a  bookbinder  will  stamp 
it  with  a  line  of  gilding  if  desired.  Some  people  have  this  little  curtain 
in  red  leather,  some  in  green  and  other  colors;  but  we  think  the  former 
too  brightening  for  the  character  of  the  room,  and  it  seems  more  suitable 
to  have  it  either  the  plain  color  of  calf -skin  as  usually  dressed,  or  else 
stained  the  color  of  the  shelves,  with  the  tiny  thread  of  gilding  along  the 
margin.  Yet  we  have  read  of  book -shelves  valanced  with  green  velvet 
fringed  with  gold. 

Fashion  varies  somewhat  as  to  the  shape  of  the  bookcases :  now  it  will 
have  them  from  floor  to  ceiling;  now  they  shall  leave  space  enough  be- 
tween the  top  and  the  ceiling  for  at  least  a  bust ;  now  they  shall  be  but 
shoulder-high,  giving  the  remainder  of  the  wall  space  to  prints,  paintings, 
and  other  ornaments.  But  this  is  a  matter  upon  which  fashion  has  no 
right  to  intrude.  The  library  is  the  place  for  books,  and  books  and  their 
requirements  make  their  own  fashions.  Ornaments,  too,  should  be  re- 
served for  the  rest  of  the  house ;  the  library  needs  little  other  than  that 


THE  LIBRARY. 


213 


presented  by  the  backs  of  the  books  and  by  the  necessities  of  the  apparatus 
for  writing  and  reading.  There  are  great  and  stately  libraries  where  the 
curiosities  collected  by  the  various  generations  of  the  family,  and  still 
preserved,  are  stored — the  old  chests,  bits  of  armor,  weapons  of  any  noted 
use,  certain  heirlooms,  and  interesting  objects  of  one  sort  and  another ; 
but  in  some  of  these  instances  the  room  is  large  enough  for  a  gallery, 
and  in  others  the  license  of  ownership  takes  advantage  of  the  place. 

In  general,  the  use  of  pictures  in  the  library  is  to  be  very  sparing,  and 
restricted  in  subject,  so  that  whatever  is  represented  there  shall  be  in  har- 
mony with  the  purposes  of  the  room.    The  space  over  the  mantel  is  al- 


Muderu  Gothic  Library. 


ways  ready  for  a  picture,  for  a  mirror  hung  there  would  be  something  for- 
eign to  the  library  and  to  all  its  uses ;  and  the  mantel-shelf  itself  affords  a 
place  for  any  bronzes  or  vases  one  may  like,  and  for  a  clock,  which  is  a 


214 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


very  essential  thing  in  a  library  of  practical  use.  Busts,  however,  in  niches, 
on  brackets,  and  on  pedestals,  are  welcome  additions,  for  they  seem  to  peo- 
ple the  room  with  the  illustrious  shapes  proper  to  it,  as  if  poets  and  gods 
visibly  haunted  the  place  of  thought ;  and  here  and  there  bronzes  may  re- 
mind you  of  a  time  when  some  artist  first  dreamed  of  a  god's  figure  dark 
between  him  and  the  sky. 


Library,  with  low  Shelves. 


Bass-reliefs,  too,  are  more  appropriate  in  their  light  and  shade  than 
the  diversity  of  color  in  much  painting ;  a  map  is  often  indispensable  in 
some  odd  corner,  and  we  suppose  a  foot  or  so  of  space  must  be  conceded 
to  a  pipe-rack.  For  the  rest,  the  pieces  of  furniture  in  themselves  are 
rather  ornamental  than  otherwise :  the  desk  and  its  lamps ;  the  steps ; 
the  little  temporary  three-sided  bookcase  moving  about  on  casters ;  the 
lectern  that  holds  the  books  in  use  beneath  its  reading  and  writing  shelf ; 
the  heavy  table  with  its  requisite  paraphernalia  of  pen-trays,  paper-knives, 
mucilage -receiver,  and  barrel  of  string;  the  portfolio  -  stands ;  the  great 
globes;  possibly  a  cabinet  for  minerals  and  things  of  that  nature;  the 
comfortable  chairs  and  foot-rests.  With  a  good  fire  and  a  bright  hearth, 
whose  steels  are  never  rusty,  this  library,  in  all  its  grave  and  quiet  dress, 
may  be  found  the  pleasantest  room  in  the  house. 


DRAWING-ROOM. 


215 


XXXV. 

DRAWING-ROOM. 

THERE  is  no  reason  for  simplifying  or  abating  the  splendor  of  the 
drawing-room  bnt  the  insufficiency  of  one's  parse.  Whatever  of 
light,  airy  elegance  and  beauty  is  within  the  power  of  the  furnishers  of 
the  house  should  be  lavished  on  it.  Solid  wealth  and  comfort  belong  to 
the  dining-room,  but  as  soft  and  gay  a  beauty  is  demanded  for  the  other 
as  can  be  imagined  and  procured.  Even  wTere  it  not  for  the  desired 
warmth  and  substantiality  of  the  deep  tints  in  the  dining-room,  yet  the 
use  and  nature  of  that  room  suggest  rather  its  dress  in  wThat  the  poets  call 
the  strong  male  colors,  leaving  the  delicate  tints  for  the  more  feminine 
character  of  the  drawing-room.  As  we  have  before  had  occasion  to  re- 
mark, facts  concerning  the  origin  of  every  room  should  have  weight  in 
its  general  furnishing ;  and  while  the  library  may  be  considered  to  be  born 
of  the  lord's  "  solar,"  the  drawing-room  is  the  result  of  the  first  separa- 
tion of  the  lady's  chamber  from  the  great  hall,  even  if  it  does  not  in 
some  measure  represent  the  gynsecium  of  the  ancients,  and  is  therefore 
essentially  one  of  the  feminine  apartments ;  and  if  it  were  not  so  in  its 
history,  it  is  so,  at  any  rate,  in  its  daily  employment  and  occupancy. 
Hence  the  preference  for  delicate  tints.  Not  that  they  are  an  absolute 
requirement  though,  for  there  are  delightful  drawing-rooms  on  record 
furnished  in  quite  the  opposite ;  and  probably  we  have  all  envied  a  cer- 
tain lovely  drawing-room  in  a  recent  novel,  where  the  groundwork  of 
the  carpet  was  nothing  less  than  black.  Yet  even  there,  if  we  remember 
rightly,  the  couleur  de  rose  of  the  rest  was  illuminated  by  numberless  mir- 
rors and  much  gilding,  by  quantities  of  pink  china,  quaint  lamps,  and  all 
the  pretty  glittering  bijouterie  in  the  world.  Every  one,  of  course,  in 
choosing  the  colors  of  the  drawing-room  will  suit  some  special  fancy  or 
some  necessity  of  complexion — a  family  of  pale  and  sallow  people  not  be- 
ing able  to  have  a  great  amount  of  green  about  them,  for  example,  and 
a  very  rosy  lady  being  quite  unwise  to  surround  herself  with  the  ruddier 
colors.  Yet  if  complexion  does  not  enter  into  the  question,  the  peach 
blooms,  the  tender  blues,  the  ethereal  greens  of  winter  sunsets,  are  charm- 
ing in  fine  drawing-rooms ;  and  gold-colored  satin,  being  in  itself  a  thing 


216 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


of  most  extreme  lustre,  supplies  a  happy  sunshine  when  clouds  are  gray. 
Yet  upon  the  walls  these  colors  can  hardly  be  given  in  their  crude  pri- 
maries, but  must  rather  be  suggested  by  combination  of  tertiary  tints, 
which  in  the  hands  of  artists  project,  as  it  were,  the  desired  color ;  and  in 
selecting  our  papers  we  will  frequently  find  that  one  which  has  not  a  line 
of  the  color  in  it  that  we  wish,  at  a  little  distance  produces  precisely  the 
effect  of  that  color  upon  eye  and  mind. 

Of  course,  in  speaking  of  the  drawing-room,  we  refer  more  particularly 
to  the  large  and  handsome  saloon  for  the  reception  of  guests  that  belongs 

to  large  and  handsome  houses, 
the  withdrawing  -  room  into 
which  one  retires  from  the 
dinner-table ;  but  in  their  gen- 
eral character  our  remarks  will 
apply  to  the  parlors  of  small- 
er dwellings,  if  the  furnisher 
mmm  bears  in  mind 

that  the  object 
in  either  room 
is  to  obtain  the 
and 
—an 

effect  which  ex- 
cludes the  idea 
of  anything  but 
enjoyment  in 
the  place — the 
very  word  ''par- 
lor" signifying 
a  place  for  con- 
versation. 

In  the  use 

of  delicate  tints  for  the  drawing-room,  the  dark  hard  wood  finishing  there 
is  frequently  unsuitable,  although  with  gold-color,  or  rose,  or  the  robin's- 
egg  blue,  black  lacquer  is  effective ;  but  the  choice  lies  with  a  lighter  fin- 
ish— the  satin-woods,  the  creamy  polished  maples,  the  pearl-gray  stained 
maples,  and  others  of  the  sort — for  wainscot  and  cornice,  doors  and  win- 
dow-frames, and  for  the  mantel,  according  to  ancient  and  elegant  usage, 
since  there  are  few  more  delightful  things  in  any  room  than  some  of  these 
woods  nobly  fashioned  and  finely  carved  in  the  mantel.  It  frequently 
happens,  however,  that  the  wainscot  and  cornice  and  dado  are  not  in  wood 


elegant 
light  effect- 


Walnut  Cabinet,  Henri  IT. ;  Alabaster  Medallion,  Head  of  Amazon  (Italian),  Sis 
teenth  Century ;  Carved  Oak  Chair,  Henri  Quatre ;  Faience  Vase,  Moustier. 


DRAWING-ROOM. 


217 


at  all  except  for  the  skirting-board  round  the  floor,  but  are  represented 
by  paper-hangings  of  varying  but  harmonizing  colors  and  patterns,  the 
portion  between  dado  and  frieze  being  broader  than  the  others,  and  of 
softer  tint.  There  are  many  papers  issued  now  of  the  soft  new  combina- 
tions of  color,  which  have  just  that  slight  peculiarity  in  tone  and  pattern 
that  Morris's  verse  has  in  poetry,  whose  designs  are  all  either  idealized  or 
conventionalized ;  and  we  think  a  deep  border  of  the  sort  is  in  better  taste 
than  any  of  the  friezes  representing  the  story  of  Middle -age  legends  or 
the  life  of  histories  and  poems,  which  injure  the  effect  of  paintings, 
bronzes,  or  bass-reliefs  below,  and  need  to  be  most  artistically  designed  or 
stencilled  to  be  any  better  than  the  insufferable  landscape  paper  of  a  hun- 
dred years  ago.  Without  any  doubt,  it  is  in  incomparably  better  taste 
than  the  classic  friezes  with  which  some  of  the  modem  Gothic  repro- 
ducers ornament  their  walls,  and  portions  of  which,  in  medallion,  may 
frequently  be  seen  making  anachronisms  of  their  various  articles  of  fur- 
niture, although  with  reasons  satisfactory  to  themselves.  On  the  middle 
portion  of  the  papering,  wdiich  corresponds  to  the  old  panelled  wainscot, 
the  pictures  are  to  be  hung;  and  care  must  be  taken  that  they  are  not 
simply  spotted  round  the  room  at  convenient  intervals,  but  that  they  are 
arranged  with  a  purpose  ;  not  only  with  an  eye  to  the  best  light  for 
the  picture  itself,  but  also  to  its  work  in  the  tout  ensemble  of  the  room, 
which  must  not  be  suffered  to  have  a  patchy  or  scrappy  look.  Sameness 
can  be  avoided  only  by  breaking  up  the  room  into  parts,  never  losing 
sight  in  the  mean  time  of  their  ultimate  union,  and  after  each  separate 
part  has  been  well  treated,  reuniting  them  in  a  whole.  The  patchy  look 
is  prevented  by  arranging  the  furniture  with  a  view  to  masses,  and  then 
combining  the  masses  themselves  with  a  view  to  harmony ;  that  is,  where 
the  heavier  objects,  such  as  cabinets  or  pianos,  tables  or  davenports,  and 
the  darker  paintings,  make  a  place  of  deep  shadow,  that  place  must  be 
balanced  by  another  having  relation  to  it,  and  must  be  relieved  by  lights 
— by  the  bare  wall  surface,  by  gilded  articles,  by  marbles,  by  the  delicate 
window  drapery ;  and  masses  and  shadows  can  always  be  created  by  the 
tall  and  slender  dark  articles  flanked,  immediately  or  by  the  foreshorten- 
ing of  the  view,  by  smaller  ones. 

The  carpet  of  the  drawing-room  is  perhaps  as  great  a  puzzle  as  the 
house  presents.  By  common  consent  it  has  usually  been  some  elaborate 
floral  piece  in  Brussels  or  Wilton  or  Axminster,  which  on  every  true  prin- 
ciple is  an  abomination  to  the  eye;  all  the  more  so  when,  as  it  frequently 
happens,  pedestals,  urns,  cherubs,  ribbons,  busts,  and  baskets,  and  bits  of 
sky  between,  are  thrown  with  a  liberal  hand  among  these  roses  the  size  of 
cabbages.    This  carpet  is  an  atrocity,  and  its  design  should  be  replaced 


2  IS 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


Screen  designed  by  Princess  Helena. 


by  the  small  arabesques ;  by  the  mossy  mottlings,  although  they  are  not 
altogether  noble  enough  for  a  room  of  any  size ;  by  interwoven  shapes 
that  are  not  exactly  floral  or  leafy,  but  look  as  if  they  might  have  dropped 
out  of  the  material  when  the  leaves  and  flowers  were  cut ;  or  by  the 
India  patterns,  which,  although  they  usually  come  in  the  very  pronounced 
deep  colors,  can  be  had  in  the  lighter  shades.  A  light  carpet,  however,  is 
not  absolutely  indispensable  to  a  light  effect  otherwise,  it  will  be  under- 
stood. The  only  carpet  of  floral  design  that  can  be  allowed  at  all,  and 
that  but  questionably,  is  the  Aubusson  tapestry,  which  is  a  work  of  art 


DRAWING-ROOM. 


219 


itself,  ard  which,  with  its  imitations  perfect  and  delicate  as  water -color 
painting,  when  brilliantly  lighted,  under  circumstances  of  great  gayety, 
plays  a  part  in  the  scene,  and  represents  sufficiently  well  the  flowers  strewn 
at  the  feet  of  the  bride.  But  people  are  not  going  to  buy  princely  car- 
pets to  use  at  one  wedding  and  roll  up  and  put  away  for  another ;  and  if 
the  Aubusson  is  a  work  of  art,  it  may  be  said  that  its  place  is  not  under 
the  feet.  An  Ax  minster  carpet,  woven  in  one  piece,  except  for  a  border, 
of  soft  shades  and  conventional  and  rather  unnoticeable  pattern,  is  the  one 
to  be  most  generally  chosen ;  and  those  made  in  this  country  under  that 
name  are  quite  as  good  as  those  made  abroad,  and,  sooth  to  say,  quite  as 
dear.  But  a  Brussels,  were  it  not  for  the  lines  of  the  several  seams,  would 
be  of  as  much  use,  and  is  preferred  by  some  feet  to  the  tufted  stuffiness  of 
the  other. 

For  the  windows,  shades  of  fluted  silk  of  a  creamy  white,  under  lace 
curtains,  soften  the  light  like  ground  glass,  and  are  pleasant  where  the 
outside  view  is  not  desired.  If  other  curtains  are  added,  they  are  best  of 
a  silk  corresponding  with  the  carpet  as  much  as  may  be,  and  combining 
the  agreeing  or  contrasting  shades  of  the  coverings  of  the  furniture,  run- 
ning under  a  lambrequin  on  a  gilded  rod  rather  than  hung  in  those  fes- 
toons whose  folds  accumulate  dust  and  streaks  of  discoloration  from  un- 
equal light.  But  it  is  possible  that  the  drawing-room  is  the  place  to  re- 
member the  transparent  nature  of  windows,  and  that  lace  drapery  is  all- 
sufficient  to  those  windows. 

The  seats  of  the  drawing-room  must  be  deep  and  luxurious  ones,  what- 
ever be  the  style  of  their  wood-work ;  and  there  must  be  varying  chairs 
of  the  light  fanciful  kind,  easily  moved  about,  with  one  or  two  of  the 
black  lacquer  and  straw  chairs,  and  those  whose  gilded  rods  give  bright- 
ness ;  while  sofas,  lounges,  chairs,  ottomans,  and  all  their  sort,  wTith  the 
circular  divan  and  its  round  tufted  back  where  there  is  room  for  it,  and 
various  footstools  and  hassocks,  inviting  the  lingerer,  are  to  be  provided 
in  profusion. 

Unless  one  has  a  separate  music -room,  there  is  to  be  a  piano  in  the 
drawing-room  ;  and  although  we  are  all  so  much  attached  to  our  own  pi- 
anos, in  our  pleasure  over  the  soft  gleaming  of  the  black  and  white  keys, 
and  our  feeling  that  they  are  like  sentient  beings  and  personal  friends, 
that  we  seldom  think  of  them  as  objects  of  beauty  or  otherwise,  yet  in  re- 
ality there  is  hardly  anything  uglier  and  more  elephantine  than  the  mod- 
ern piano,  whether  grand  or  square.  The  upright  piano  has  its  possibili- 
ties, but'  it  is  objectionable  on  the  score  of  requiring  the  singer,  when 
playing  the  accompaniment,  to  face  the  wall  in  singing;  but  the  old-fash- 
ioned clavichord,  with  its  shallow,  curving,  prettily  panelled  and  inlaid 


220 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


sides  and  its  slender  legs,  was  something  to  please  the  eye,  while  the  very 
construction  of  the  modern  square  and  grand  piano  requires  substantial 
supports  to  its  weight,  and  makes  it  bad.  Illustrations  have  already  been 
given  of  a  Louis  Treize  upright  piano,  magnificent  with  inlaid  work  of 
lapis  lazuli,  pearl,  and  jasper,  and  of  a  Gothic  one  bristling  with  Flemish 
carving ;  and  as  the  exigeante  prima  donna  to  whom  the  situation  of  the 
instrument  is  of  vital  consequence  is  too  seldom  a  guest  of  the  general 
drawing-room  to  be  considered,  one  may  prefer  to  attend  in  this  matter 
to  the  beauty  that  feeds  the  daily  eye,  rather  than  to  the  possibility  of  a 
voice  that  may  never  be  lifted  within  the  doors. 

The  shape  of  the  centre-table,  whether  round,  oval,  or  oblong,  is  at  the 
option  of  the  furnisher,  although  it  might  be  thought  that  the  oblong  ta- 
ble was  best  suited  to  the  oblong  room. 
While  the  round  table  has  been  com- 
mon in  all,  most  of  the  very  beautiful 
tables  of  the  grand  styles  have  been  in 
the  oblong  shape.  Yet  there  seems  to 
be  something  more  friendly  about  the 
round  table,  with  its  greater  conven- 
ience, than  about  the  other,  provided 
it  is  generously  large  and  comfortably 
low.  Still,  it  will  probably  be  found 
that  the  contiguous  pieces  of  furniture 
have  something  to  do  in  determining 
the  shape ;  and  in  small  rooms  a  centre- 
table  is  best  dispensed  with  altogether, 
side -tables  answering  all  purposes  not 
met  by  a  little  gueridon  or  tripod  for  a  lamp.  The  side-tables  may  be 
pier-tables  with  mirrors,  half-moons,  or  mere  consoles,  and  they  are  very 
necessary  in  filling  too  naked  space  between  windows  or  on  the  blank 
wall,  or  in  smaller  size  standing  here  and  there  to  support  some  trifle  or 
answer  some  need. 

The  mirrors  are  another  important  feature  of  this  room,  for,  banished 
from  the  library,  and  of  disputed  right  in  the  dining-room,  they  fall  back 
on  the  drawing-room  and  on  the  boudoir  as  upon  strongholds,  and  all  the 
lightness  and  brightness  that  has  been  built  up  in  the  place  it  is  their  prov- 
ince to  reduplicate,  while  they  enlarge  space  and  seem  to  add  society,  and 
give,  whether  sensibly  recognized  or  not,  some  of  their  own  magical  at- 
mosphere to  the  scene  they  reflect.  It  is  not  only  the  long  and  large  mir- 
rors that  are  of  service  in  the  drawing-room,  but  the  tiny  bevelled  mirrors 
of  curious  shapes  set  in  curious  frames  either  of  carved  wood  or  old  brass 


Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room  Table  aud  Stool. 


DRAWING-ROOM. 


221 


and  silver,  and  with  cup-shaped  candlesticks  or  sconces  underneath.  These 
little  mirrors  and  girandoles  are  immensely  illuminating,  and  if  wisely  dis- 
tributed, so  as  not  to  bring  a  blot  of  lustre  in  the  wrong  place,  increase  the 
brilliancy  of  the  room. 

Producing  almost  as  instant  result  as  the  little  bevelled  mirrors  is  the 
gayly  colored  china  platter,  pierced  and  hung  upon  its  hook,  and  often 
doing  more  than  any  picture  in  positive  decoration  and  supply  of  a  piece 
of  needed  color.  One  need  not  speak  of  such  things  as  pedestals  with 
their  marbles  and  casts,  the  antique  vases  or  their  imitations,  the  brackets, 
the  jardinieres,  the  vases  and  stands  of  flowers,  and  all  the  thousand  and 
one  momentous  trifles.  They  are  things  of  course,  and  according  to  one's 
purse  and  education ;  but  we  may  say  that  the  lamps  should  be  as  varied 
and  choice  as  the  artist  has  designed,  that  if  gas  is  used,  the  chandeliers 
must  be  mere  coronas  as  light  as  jewellery,  and  that  wax-candles  are  pleas- 
anter  than  either. 

The  mantel-piece  of  the  drawing-room  is  always  to  be  its  most  elabo- 
rate and  beautiful  point,  giving  the  key-note,  as  it  were,  of  the  rest  of  the 
room,  and  care  must  be  expended  on  its  scenic  capabilities — its  ornaments 
few  but  majestic  and  splendid,  its  dignity  completely  maintained.  It  is 
not  necessary  that  the  fireplace  should  be  large — it  is  only  to  toast  a  lady's 
feet ;  but  the  fire  furniture,  although  kept  shining,  must  not  be  too  richly 
wrought,  except  the  little  gilt  fan  screen,  which  is  almost  a  fire  in  itself. 
The  coal-hod  need  not  remain  in  the  room,  if  coal  is  used ;  and  if  wood 
burns  on  the  hearth,  shovel  and  tongs  and  andirons  should  not  be  too  fine 
to  use.  In  summer,  flowers  will  replace  the 
whole. 

The  customary  folding-screen  is  valua- 
ble for  its  effect,  both  through  its  beauty 
and  its  use  in  breaking  a  space,  and  it  af- 
fords opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  fancy, 
with  gilded  glass,  with  peacock  plumes  and 
velvet,  with  frames  of  finely  woven  brass 
wire,  or  with  panels  of  embroidery.  Al- 
most as  valuable  is  the  easel,  and  its  beauty 
and  convenience  were  recognized  hundreds 
of  years  ago,  as  finely  carved  specimens  of 
the  early  Renaissance  still  exist  to  tell  us. 
The  last  pictorial  acquisition  leaning  on  the 

Modem  Gothic  Drawing-room  Screen  and 

easel,  open  to  study,  gives  a  pleasant  addi-  stooL 
lion,  and  calls  up  thoughts  of  something  more  than  a  mere  idle  drawing- 
room,  after  all. 


222  ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 

The  davenport,  the  etagere,  the  corner  shelves,  all  help  to  fill  the  room 
and  give  it  the  air  of  occupancy  and  use  and  agreeable  life.  Provided 


Modern  Gothic  Drawing-room. 


there  is  space  to  move  about,  without  knocking  over  the  furniture,  there 
is  hardly  likely  to  be  too  much  in  the  room. 

As  important  a  piece  as  any,  though,  is  the  cabinet,  partly  drawers, 
partly  doors,  partly  open  shelves.  Always  to  be  of  fine  workmanship,  but 
not  too  much  variegated  itself,  with  faience  plaques  and  fringed  curtains 
and  gay  leathers,  and  in  character  with  the  wood-work  of  the  chief  fur- 
niture, it  receives  and  keeps  secure  all  the  little  treasures  that  belong 
nowhere  else  —  choice  minerals  perhaps,  atoms  of  priceless  china,  the  too 
precious  album,  historical  relics,  trophies  of  travel,  little  dainty  curios  and 
fragile  things  that  may  have  fallen  into  one's  possession,  now  and  then  to 
be  displayed.  From  its  height  and  breadth  the  cabinet  is  the  main  piece 
of  furniture  in  the  room,  and  is  capable  of  vastly  adding  to  or  diminish- 
ing the  desired  character.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  have  it  of  any  light- 
ness in  the  Gothic  ;  in  the  Renaissance  the  artist  naturally  takes  to  light- 
ness and  grace  and  the  superficial  charm  that  becomes  the  drawing-room ; 
but  if  it  must  be  in  the  Gothic,  some  light  gilt  cresting  and  lattice-work, 
and  guards  to  hold  insecure  articles  in  position,  lend  it  a  more  suitable 
appearance.  The  little  hanging  cabinet,  with  its  open  shelves  at  top  and 
bottom,  and  its  enclosed  ones  behind  tiny  doors  of  plate-glass  or  of  gay 


DRAWING-ROOM. 


223 


porcelain,  must  not  be  forgotten,  in  its  place,  for  although  so  small,  it  is 
one  of  the  most  charming  objects  of  furniture  we  have. 

These  things  are  the  appurtenances  of  wealthy  drawing-rooms.  Yet 
we  have  seen  drawing-rooms  with  the  carpet  threadbare;  with  the  hope- 
lessly marred  furniture  hidden  beneath  delicate  chintz ;  vines  draping  the 
windows  and  the  tarnish  of  the  old  mirror;  with  home-painted  china  and 
water  -  colors ;  cheap  tables  covered  with  cloths  embroidered  by  nimble 
lingers ;  screens  where  the  scissors  and  paste-pot  rivalled  the  Japanese ; 
the  one  luxury  of  a  fine  piano,  and  a  harp,  most  picturescpie  and  poetical 
of  shapes ;  and  everywhere  an  abundance  of  books — drawing-rooms  whose 
simplicity  eclipsed  the  achievement  of  silk  and  velvet  and  gilding,  and 
obtained  the  light  effect  proper  to  the  place  without  the  sacrifice  of  any- 
thing more  costly  than  time  and  patience. 


Walnut  Armoire,  on  Italian  Pedestal,  Sixteenth  Century;  Screen  in  Tapestry,  Louis  XIV.,  Subject  "The 
King  and  Mademoiselle  de  la  Valliere." 


22± 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE, 


XXXVI. 

BRIO- A  BR  AC. 

IT  is  the  bric-a-brac,  the  curious  trifles,  the  movable  ornaments  and  gew- 
gaws used  for  filling  up  the  picture,  for  giving  an  enhanced  brilliancy, 
and  creating  interest  —  the  things  that  "notable  housewives"  call  trash 
and  trumpery — that  have  about  as  much  to  do  with  the  impression  a  room 
conveys  as  the  heavier  articles  and  their  arrangement  do.  Indeed,  a  few 
moments'  observation  in  the  drawing-room  of  any  family  will  usually  give 
much  information  concerning  the  grade  of  that  family's  culture  by  noth- 
ing more  than  the  character  of  the  bric-a-brac  to  be  seen  there. 

To  be  sure,  people  of  moderate  means  must  take  their  ornaments  as 
they  can  get  them  —  this  an  heirloom  to  be  preserved  with  pride,  if  not 
with  admiration  ;  that  a  gift,  and  to  be  treated  with  honor,  whether  desired 
or  not,  although  too  frequently  purchased  with  reference  only  to  the  giv- 
er's eye,  and  without  thought  of  its  future  surroundings — so  that  they  are 
by  no  means  responsible  for  the  whole  burden  of  their  bric-a-brac.  Yet 
almost  every  one  can  now  and  then  find  some  small  but  characteristic 
treasure  within  reach,  and  that  single  characteristic  thing,  given  due  prom- 
inence, may  be  the  one  righteous  individual  of  a  perfect  Sodom  of  worth- 
less baubles.  The  absence  of  all  trifles,  though,  is  as  betraying  as  the  pres- 
ence of  inferior  articles  is,  for  if  there  is  any  evidence  of  much  free  expen- 
diture elsewhere  in  the  room,  it  is  apt  to  show  that  articles  sought  for  by 
the  vulgar  are  in  more  esteem  than  those  where  sometimes  one  looks  for 
beauty  twice  before  finding  it;  and  yet  just  as  tale-telling  is  the  presence 
of  a  multitude  of  the  smaller  affairs  that  have  no  especial  value,  for  they 
declare  a  too  eager  love  of  acquisition  and  a  less  fastidious  taste  than  full 
purse.  The  mere  shape  of  a  lamp  shows  whether  people  buy  what  their 
neighbors  buy,  or  have  any  individual  taste  of  their  owrn  to  exercise,  or 
give  a  thought  to  the  matter  of  educating  what  we  may  call  the  aesthetic 
senses. 

It  is  not  for  what  they  tell  of  us  to  outsiders,  though,  that  wTe  want  our 
pretty  trifles ;  they  answer  a  requirement  of  our  own,  and  give  us  a  grati- 
fication that  renews  itself  every  time  we  look  at  them — not  that  of  posses- 
sion merely,  but  food  for  the  appetite,  given  by  the  lovely  outlines,  the 


BRIC-A-BRAC. 


225 


pure  colors,  and  the  precious  histories  drawn  out  of  the  past  by  the  little 
thread  they  hold.  Who  can  take  up  an  ornament  of  old  green-crusted 
bronze,  dug  from  the  earth  that  has  covered  it  for  two  thousand  years, 
without  wondering  to  what  purpose  lived  and  died  a  people  so  perfect  in 
the  arts,  and  losing  one's  self  in  the  problems  of  creation  and  the  econo- 
mies of  the  universe  ?  Who  can  see  a  broken  drinking-cup  of  glass,  whose 
long  decay  and  disintegration  have  coated  it  with  richer  dyes  than  the 
opal's,  without  wondering  what  bearded  lips  of  mighty  heroes  last  it 
kissed  ?  Who  can  see  a  worn  and  blackened  ring  of  Egyptian  gold  without 
thinking  of  the  romance  of  two  lovers  that  it  bound  in  its  magic  circle, 
whose  very  dust  no  longer  blows  about  the  earth?  And  in  the  more  mod- 
ern articles,  where  no  such  story  clings,  who  can  take  up  the  bronze  bird 
poised  lightly  on  his  bending  wheat-ear,  or  the  china  cup  with  its  wreaths 
of  blossoms,  without  bringing  sunshine  and  all  out-doors  within  the  four 
walls  of  the  house  ? 

It  is  true  that  bric-a-brac  costs  money,  and  vastly  more,  in  proportion, 
than  the  larger,  more  solid,  and  what  the  majority  of  the  world  considers 
the  more  indispensable,  furniture,  although  there  are  some  people  so  fond 
of  the  pride  of  the  eye  that  they  quite  agree  with  the  worthy  economist 
who  was  willing  to  forego  the  necessaries  of  life  if  he  could  only  have  the 
luxuries,  and  will  revel  over  the  bit  of  wonderful  bronze  or  curious  china 
while  they  sit  in  a  deal  chair  to  enjoy  it.  But  it  may  be  that  these  people, 
in  their  turn,  have  a  defect  of  taste  in  not  demanding  lit  surroundings  for 
their  bit  of  china,  and  in  enjoying  beauty  as  a  mere  detail  without  requir- 
ing it  as  a  whole. 

It  is  these  details,  however,  that  go  very  far  toward  securing  beauty  as 
a  whole ;  they  supply  a  lack  here,  and  give  the  dash  of  opposite  or  of  con- 
tinuing color  just  where  it  is  needed,  draw  attention  to  a  point  there  by 
adding  the  bit  of  lustre  that  brings  a  surface  out  of  the  gloom,  and  they 
engraft  a  life  and  vivacity  upon  what  would  frequently  be  but  a  dead 
dulness  without  them.  In  order  to  do  this  they  do  not  need  to  be  of  the 
most  costly  description.  If  the  little  wooden  bracket  is  cut  upon  artistic 
principles,  it  answers  the  purpose  of  general  effect  nearly  as  well  as  if 
Grinling  Gibbons  had  carved  it,  although,  of  course,  infinitely  more  desir- 
able if  informed  with  genius ;  and  if  it  upholds  a  statuette  whose  subject 
is  fine  and  treated  with  spirit,  it  is  no  matter  whether  that  statuette  be  a 
copy  or  an  original.  Nor,  indeed,  does  the  material  of  the  statuette  or 
bust  signify  so  much  as  we  are  accustomed  to  consider  that  it  should ;  for 
if  the  work  is  good  and  the  copy  faithful,  almost  as  much  can  be  gained 
in  the  appearance  of  the  room  and  in  the  personal  pleasure  of  outline  and 
proportion  from  a  choice  plaster  cast  that  the  master  has  superintended  as 

15 


226 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


from  the  real  bronze ;  and  in  the  unconscious  action  of  the  mind  the 
owner  gathers  satisfaction  from  the  knowledge  of  what  is  intended  if  not 
reached,  and  the  beholder  from  perception  of  an  atmosphere  of  thought 
and  fancy  where  such  a  selection  of  subject  is  made.  We  do  not,  how- 
ever, mean  that  any  plaster  cast  can  ever  equal  the  perfection  of  the  orig- 
inal, the  sharp  precision  of  the  bronze,  the  transfigured  splendor  of  the 
marble,  but  only  to  assert  that  the  one  will  answer  wdiere  the  other  cannot 
be  had ;  and  where  the  more  precious  materials  are  quite  beyond  one's 
power,  that  by  careful  search  and  by  keeping  on  the  lookout  for  them, 
very  nice  things  in  the  plaster  or  the  inferior  metal  composition  will  be 
found,  and  will  give  great  contentment ;  for  it  is  surprising  how  things 
of  the  sort  turn  up  the  moment  we  really  begin  to  look  for  them.  But 
one  or  two  small  bits  of  real  bronze  are  hardly  out  of  the  reach  of  any- 
body who  has  a  drawing-room  to  furnish  at  all;  exquisite  things  in  it 
are  to  be  had  in  the  San  Francisco  markets  at  small  prices — inkstands  of 
quaint  and  ingenious  device,  paper  -  weights,  knives,  Oriental  gods;  and 
many  curious  oddities  are  brought  home,  and  can  be  had  of  those  en- 
gaged in  the  East  India  and  China  trade. 

JN~or  need  we  despise  a  little  of  our  grandmother's  old  china  because  it 
is  not  Sevres,  or  Capo-di-Monte,  or  Raffaelle  ware.  It  is  usually  better 
than  anything  we  are  likely  to  be  able  to  buy,  if  our  incomes  are  at  all 
circumscribed ;  and  one  of  her  best  platters  on  the  top  of  the  cabinet  will 
add  a  note  to  the  chord  we  are  trying  to  strike ;  one  of  her  bowls,  with 
its  roses  and  butterflies,  on  a  wall  bracket  beneath,  will  take  up  and 
carry  down  the  flowers  of  the  wTater-color  that  hangs  above,  and  correct 
the  spotty  look  such  little  pictures  sometimes  give.  It  is  not  uncommon 
now  to  And  these  odd  pieces  of  china  for  sale  with  the  dealers  in  old 
furniture  in  our  large  country  towns ;  and  if  one  takes  pains  to  secure 
information  from  books  or  actual  examples,  one  can  sometimes  bring  that 
information  to  bear,  and  secure  a  piece  of  something  really  valuable.  For 
our  ancestresses,  even  in  this  country,  did  not  so  value  the  contents  of 
their  china  closets  for  nothing;  many  of  them,  indeed,  in  tolerably  com- 
fortable circumstances  at  home,  before  they  came  here  wTith  their  ambi- 
tious or  restless  husbands,  and  with  relatives  there  to  send  them  what 
they  wished,  brought  out  with  them,  or  received  afterward,  as  their 
proper  equipage  of  house-keeping,  china  which  then  was  valuable  and  now 
is  invaluable.  We  have  ourselves  seen  many  precious  pieces  for  sale  for  a 
mere  song  in  the  hands  of  these  old  dealers,  who,  with  a  general  idea  of 
what  they  can  "  make  a  trade  on,"  travel  round  the  country  and  inspect 
the  contents  of  one  farmer's  house  after  another,  and  collect  such  available 
material  as  will  be  parted  with  by  the  wives,  who,  although  they  hold  this 


BRIC-A-BRAC. 


227 


or  that  thing  as  their  last  link  with  an  ancient  gentility,  now  need  the 
money  enough  to  be  tempted  by  it.  Perhaps  it  is  not  faience  de  Rouen, 
or  Rennes,  or  Strasburg,  or  any  of  the  priceless  Italian  majolicas ;  but  it 
is  not  unlikely  that  it  should  be  a  bit  of  genuine  Delft,  and  not  absolutely 
impossible  that  it  should  be  the  early  Bow,  with  the  bee  beneath  the 
handle,  or  the  Chelsea,  its  last  owners  utterly  ignorant  of  its  value ;  for  in 
those  later  colonial  days  it  was  Oriental  china  that  met  the  fashionable 
mania  under  royal  patronage,  and  china  of  English  and  Dutch  manufact- 
ure was  used  in  whole  sets  upon  the  breakfast -table,  a  single  piece  of 
which  we  are  now  proud  to  have  in  our  cabinet. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  every  woman  loves  china,  and  every  man 
knows  it,  and  perhaps  in  the  depths  of  his  inner  consciousness  loves  it 
himself.  It  certainly  supplies  a  more  feminine  grace  to  the  drawing-room 
if  there  is  some  treasure  of  it  there.  Addison  said,  more  than  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  that  there  was  no  inclination  of  women  that  more 
surprised  him  than  this  passion  for  china.  "  When  a  woman  is  visited 
with  it,"  said  he,  "it  generally  takes  possession  of  her  for  life.  China 
vessels  are  playthings  for  women  of  all  ages.  An  old  lady  of  fourscore 
shall  be  as  busy  in  cleaning  an  Indian  mandarin  as  her  great-granddaugh- 
ter is  in  dressing  her  baby."  The  great  writer  forgot  that  there  might 
be  some  real  excellence  in  an  article  a  passion  for  which  takes  possession 
of  one  for  life.  But  women  are  not  alone  in  the  matter,  for  men  have 
been  the  most  famous  collectors  and  writers  on  the  theme,  and  of  Horace 
Walpole  it  was  said : 

"  China's  the  passion  of  his  soul ; 
A  cup,  a  plate,  a  dish,  a  bowl, 
Can  kindle  wishes  in  his  breast, 
Inflame  with  joy,  or  break  his  rest." 

There  must  be  reason  for  such  a  passion,  and  it  would  not  be  amiss  for 
every  lady  to  inform  herself  thoroughly  concerning  its  object — a  part  of 
it,  to  be  sure,  being  due  to  the  influence  of  a  fashion,  but  a  greater  part 
to  the  sealing  of  fine  shape  and  color  under  this  almost  indestructible 
glaze,  so  that  a  flower  painted  and  fired  on  china  is  beauty  made  imperish- 
able, as  a  diamond  is  a  drop  of  dew  eternalized.  We  say  imperishable, 
meaning,  of  course,  under  proper  treatment ;  for  a  thing  which  can  almost 
defy  the  elements  is  at  the  mercy  of  a  child's  fingers,  and  that  sort  of 
fragility  acquires  value  through  the  very  action  of  the  care  we  take  of  it. 
Those  who  laugh  at  the  love  of  china  have  the  laugh  against  them,  for 
they  only  expose  their  ignorance.  It  is  impossible  that  men  should  spend 
their  lives,  and  kings  their  treasure,  in  securing  a  certain  glaze  to  a  cer- 
tain kind  of  porcelain  unless  it  is  worth  doing,  unless  it  is  a  victory  wrung 


228 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


from  raw  material  and  crude  nature ;  and  not  only  has  this  been  the  case, 
but  as  fine  genius  and  accomplished  art  have  been  expended  on  the  pro- 
duction of  china  as  on  gems  and  marbles,  gold  and  silver.  A  Palissy 
mug,  with  its  embedded  shells,  its  raised  reptiles,  insects,  flowers,  and 
leaves,  is  a  work  of  high  art,  although  utterly  out  of  our  reach ;  a  Henri 
Deux  pitcher,  with  the  amber  glaze  over  its  inlaid  ornaments,  and  its  rosy 
reliefs  of  masks  and  garlands ;  pieces  of  Sevres,  with  their  tints  of  bleu  du 
roi,  jonquille,  vert  pre,  and  rose  du  Barri,  with  their  paintings  by  Watteau, 
and  their  incrusted  gems ;  Dresden  candelabra,  whose  life-like  figures  are 
in  fact  statuettes,  and  where  the  detail,  in  its  rich  and  delicate  colors,  is 
so  perfect  that  the  lace,  for  instance,  imitated  there  (an  intricate  piece  of 
point  de  Yenise  or  a  delicate  gossamer  of  Brussels)  is  said  to  be  secured 
by  pressing  the  real  lace  into  the  clay  —  a  story,  perhaps,  no  truer  than 
the  corresponding  one  that  the  excellence  of  certain  Chinese  porcelain  is 
secured  by  dropping  a  young  child  into  the  furnace ;  a  Wedgwood  copy 
of  the  Portland  Yase,  with  its  classic  white  cameos  upon  the  blue  ground ; 
a  plate  of  Luca  della  Robbia's  majolica,  with  its  Cupids  and  wreaths  and 
fruit  and  ivory  enamel ;  or  of  Fontana's,  with  its  designs  from  Raffaelle, 
for  which  Louis  XIY.  offered  the  counterparts  in  gold :  these  are  each 
and  all  just  as  pure  and  fine  works  of  art  in  their  way  as  the  sculptures 
of  Ghiberti,  the  old  enamels  of  Limousin,  the  golden  vases  and  coins  and 
jewel-work  of  Cellini,  although  the  latter  are  all  more  keenly  and  gener- 
ally appreciated,  in  the  one  case,  perhaps,  for  size,  and  in  the  other  for 
native  value  of  material.  It  is  better  to  strive  to  reach  such  things  by  an 
imitation  than  not  to  care  for  them  at  all ;  and  as  we  cannot  comfortably 
use  the  big  sculptures  in  the  drawing-room,  and  the  chinas  or  their  imi- 
tations remain  at  command,  we  may  be  thankful  that  the  latter  are  much 
the  more  decorative.  The  majolica,  indeed,  is  a  peculiarly  interesting 
product  of  art,  for  its  ornamentation  requires  singular  facility  and  talent : 
the  vessel  of  common  terra-cotta,  fashioned  on  the  wheel  and  burned,  then 
dipped  into  a  paste  whose  moisture  its  porous  substance  absorbs,  leaving  a 
soft  and  exceedingly  tender  coating  on  the  surface,  is  painted  in  enamel 
colors  by  artists  who  know  that  every  line  must  tell  and  be  complete  at 
one  stroke,  that  no  erasure  can  be  made,  and  that  even  to  delay  with  a 
lingering  brush  one  instant  is  to  cause  a  ruinous  suffusion  of  color ;  the 
vessel  is  then  enclosed  in  another  of  the  same  clay,  and  again  cast  into  the 
flames,  out  of  which  at  last  it  arises  glorified. 

It  is  idle  to  suppose  that  this  genius,  this  care,  this  labor,  this  money, 
are  wasted.  For  those  who  can  see  it,  they  bring  the  beauty  of  the  world 
into  the  house  fortunate  enough  to  have  the  result.  But  it  is  a  beauty 
that  is  unattainable  by  most  of  us,  for  not  even  money  can  purchase  it, 


BRIC-A-BRAC. 


229 


princes  and  collectors  and  museums  having  monopolized  the  genuine  ex- 
isting specimens ;  and  the  many  must  content  themselves  with  imitations, 
with  counterfeits,  with  modern  reproductions  of  the  old,  and  writh  infe- 
rior productions  of  the  present.  Yet  neither  Dresden  nor  Sevres,  in  small 
articles,  is  impossible  to  the  average  person  wdio  really  desires  it,  and  is 
willing  to  forego  some  other  luxury  in  order  to  have  it ;  bits  of  real  ma- 
jolica are  not  very  expensive;  and  plates  of  the  lovely  Doulton- ware, 
painted  after  designs  by  some  of  the  best  living  designers,  and  which, 
made  in  all  its  beauty,  as  it  is,  of  the  common  drain -pipe  stuff  at  one 
firing,  reminds  us  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  Swedenborg's  Beauty  from 
Ashes,  ought  to  content  those  who  can  afford  that  which  costs  far  more. 
Whatever  it  is  that  we  can  have  in  that  line,  whether  precious  and  price- 
less, or  mere  brightening  bits  of  color  that  some  untaught  sailor  has 
brought  home  from  the  East,  an  atom  of  coral -ware,  of  blue -and-  white 
Nankin,  a  little  teapot  of  crackly  Satsuma,  there  is  nothing  more  deco- 
rative to  a  room,  among  the  lesser  objects,  and  the  flat  articles  may  be 
framed  and  hung,  or  be  held  by  hooks  in  the  wall,  or  may  stand  protected 
by  a  groove  on  the  top  of  the  cabinet,  or  on  any  shelf.  Then,  too,  a  mod- 
ern Venetian  goblet,  writh  its  twisted  strings  of  colored  glass,  is  not  beyond 
reach  of  those  that  know  its  charm,  now  that  the  manufacture  is  again  en- 
couraged ;  and  we  have  seen  in  old  country-houses,  that  will  one  day  be 
rifled  of  them,  tall  cylindrical  glasses  of  greenish  tinge,  with  bosses  and 
gilt  and  colored  ornament,  that  will  very  well-  take  the  place  of  an  almost 
priceless  German  original.  Close  upon  china  and  glass,  too,  come  wonder- 
ful things  in  the  Chinese  jade — vases,  candlesticks,  cups,  trinkets — some- 
times of  the  deep  green  of  shallow  water  running  in  limestone  regions, 
sometimes  of  a  pure  creamy  tint  almost  transparent.  This  is  exceedingly 
precious  and  costly ;  but  we  have  seen  it  imitated  for  tiles,  paper-weights, 
and  such  articles,  in  the  noble  serpentine,  so  that  it  defied  detection,  and, 
for  ornaments  of  personal  wear,  an  oak-leaf-shaped  brooch,  a  pin  of  the 
four -ribbed  cornel  leaves,  ear-rings  imitating  those  made  of  the  rattle- 
snake's rattle,  thin,  translucent,  and  utterly  lovely. 

With  the  rest,  if  we  have  no  myrrhine  cups  or  unicorns'  horns,  there 
are  the  countless  things  that  our  travelling  friends  bring  us;  there  are  our 
card-receivers,  our  tortoise-shell  wrork-boxes,  our  brass  appliques  and  can- 
dlesticks, our  carved  coral  card-cases,  our  fans,  our  hand-screens,  our  al- 
bums between  plaques  of  ivory,  our  vases  of  famous  shape,  even  if  of  com- 
monest blown  glass,  our  lacquered  trays  and  cases,  our  sandal-wood  boxes, 
our  bits  of  the  strange  Bombay  work,  our  thousand  and  one  fancy  things, 
grotesque  or  severe,  the  tiny  Navajo  basket  that  holds  water,  the  bit  of 
gold-work  of  Montezuma's  day,  the  drinking-cup  of  a  chamois'  horn,  the 


230 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


little  Spanish  dagger,  whose  damascene  -  work  makes  one  remember  the 
wonderful  Moorish  weapons  with  rubies  set  in  their  back  like  drops  of 
blood,  the  brier-wood  pipe  that  had  a  new  intaglio  cut  upon  it  after  every 
battle  of  the  war,  and  that  never  will  be  smoked  again — all  these  babioles 
can  be  made  to  illuminate  a  room  and  help  its  picturesque  idea,  even  if 
they  amount  to  nothing  at  all  in  the  eyes  of  a  dealer  in  bric-a-brac. 


THE  ART  OF  FURNISHING. 


231 


XXXVII. 

THE  ART  OF  FURNISHING. 

WHEN  all  is  said,  the  art  of  decorating  and  furnishing  comprises 
something  very  far  beyond  the  mere  technical  knowledge  of  styles, 
and  the  ability  to  date  on  sight  a  piece  of  furniture  by  its  construction. 
One  may  be  as  well  acquainted  with  the  outlines  of  the  pointed  Gothic, 
where  the  soaring  spirit  of  art  is  kept  within  just  such  bounds  as  those 
within  which  the  ritual  confines  the  soaring  spirit  of  faith,  as  with  the 
opening  pages  of  Milton's  "Paradise  Lost,"  parsed  at  school — may  have 
as  keen  a  relish  for  the  bossy  beauty  of  Renaissance  carving,  with  its 
masks  and  shields  and  tracery  and  luxurious  loveliness,  as  for  Shakspeare's 
" Midsummer  Night's  Dream"  or  Spenser's  "Faerie  Queene" — one  may 
admire  the  splendid  contrasts  of  light  and  shadow  and  the  eccentricities 
of  the  Rococo  as  one  admires  their  literary  counterpart  in  Victor  Hugo 
— one  may  be  able  to  tell  the  place  of  manufacture  of  a  broken  bit  of 
china  a  couple  of  hundred  years  old  without  looking  at  the  cachet — one, 
in  short,  may  be  a  connoisseur  in  all  sorts  of  curios,  and  yet  be  totally 
destitute  of  any  faculty  of  putting  them  together  so  as  to  make  the  most 
of  their  congregated  beauty,  of  the  first  idea  of  grouping  various  articles 
for  the  sake  of  their  picturesque  charm  when  united. 

Much  may  be  said  about  the  subject  of  furnishing  as  an  art,  but  when 
every  instruction  has  been  given  that  love  of  beauty  or  knowledge  of  ori- 
gin and  correspondences  can  impart,  it  will  still  be  felt  that  furnishing 
is  an  affair  of  genius  and  tact,  that  is,  of  thorough  taste ;  and  that  unless 
these  qualities  are  brought  to  bear  upon  it,  the  most  magnificent  garniture 
a  room  can  have  might  as  well  be  four  pine  chairs  and  a  table,  for  all  the 
real  harmony  of  effect  and  delight  of  home  produced  by  it.  Nor  are 
these  all;  for  as  the  house  is  not  furnished  whose  kitchen  has  not  received 
the  same  attention  as  a  kitchen  that  its  parlor  receives  as  a  parlor,  and 
whose  mistress  goes  without  broiler  or  dredger  in  the  one  place  for  the 
sake  of  any  ornament  in  the  other,  so  is  the  house  yet  unfurnished  where 
a  regard  for  others  is  not  shown  in  matters  that  hardly  come  under  the 
domain  of  taste  at  all  —  in  provision  of  the  stout  chair  that  the  stout 
person  can  use  without  fear  of  breaking;  of  the  high-seated  chair  from 


232 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


which  the  stiff-limbed  old  person  can  rise  without  effort ;  of  the  low  seat 
for  the  chance  child,  if  the  house  is  so  unblessed  as  to  have  no  other,  to 
be  happy  in  :  unfurnished  without  such  and  other  constant  evidence  of  an 
unselfish  care,  as  well  as  of  love  of  beauty  and  knowledge  of  what  has 
been  done  in  beauty.  But  if  one  has  absolutely  neither  taste  nor  aptitude 
in  this  direction,  yet  desires  fit  furnishing,  and  has  the  wealth  which  that 
demands,  the  best  course  is  to  put  the  whole  house  into  the  hands  of 
accomplished  upholsterers.  They  will  enter  at  the  moment  the  masons 
leave,  and  they  will  not  only  attend  to  every  detail,  but  will  render  those 
details  into  a  homogeneous  whole.  The  frescoes  of  the  ceilings,  the  col- 
ors of  the  carpet  and  curtains  and  furniture  covers,  the  wood-work  of  the 
furniture  and  of  the  walls,  will  be  designed  exactly  to  correspond  with 
each  other;  doors  and  fireplaces,  windows  and  mirrors,  will  be  a  part  of 
the  picture ;  and  if  the  result  does  not  express  any  individuality  of  the 
owner,  it  is  yet  necessarily  full  of  harmony  and  grace  and  beauty,  for  it  is 
the  work  of  skill  and  art,  and  that  skill  and  art  which  command  a  price, 
as  one  may  believe  who  knows  that  the  great  furniture  houses  pay  from 
thirty  to  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  the  drawing  of  their  designs 
alone. 

Yet  there  are  many  who  possess  this  genius  for  furnishing  and  decora- 
tion who  have  but  the  narrowest  means  with  which  to  work ;  and  we  are 
often  forced  to  wonder,  upon  entering  a  place  thus  made  attractive  by 
some  gentle  spirit  with  so  slight  material,  what  the  same  spirit  could  do  if 
possessed  of  the  special  knowledge  of  what  has  been  achieved  in  furniture 
in  past  and  present,  together  with  the  pecuniary  resources  necessary  to 
make  use  of  it. 

Furnishing,  although  largely  woman's  work  in  the  direction,  is  really 
no  trivial  matter,  to  be  left  contemptuously  to  the  women  and  girls  of  the 
family.  Its  study  is  as  important,  in  some  respects,  as  the  study  of  poli- 
tics ;  for  the  private  home  is  at  the  foundation  of  the  public  state,  subtle 
and  unimagined  influences  moulding  the  men  who  mould  the  state ;  and 
the  history  of  furniture  itself,  indeed,  involves  the  history  of  nations.  The 
art  of  furnishing  comprehends  much  more  than  the  knack  of  putting  pict- 
ures and  tables  and  chairs  into  suitable  co-relation ;  it  comprehends  a  large 
part  of  the  art  of  making  home  attractive,  and  of  shaping  the  family  with 
the  gentle  manners  that  make  life  easier  to  one  and  pleasanter  to  all ;  and 
it  would  seem  as  if  the  people  who  came  out  of  pleasant  homes  would  have 
their  sympathies  and  humanities  so  cultivated  by  the  influence  of  their 
surroundings  that  they  would  be  more  earnest  to  make  pleasant  homes 
possible  for  all.  Not  that  we  would  lay  any  undue  stress  on  the  sub- 
y  stance  or  the  shapes  of  furniture  and  its  accessories.    One  of  the  finest 


THE  ART  OF  FURNISHING. 


233 


rooms  we  ever  knew  was  furnished  in  a  coarse,  cheap  cretonne  and  straw, 
with  one  or  two  rubbishy  pieces  of  old  mahogany  of  the  last  generation. 
Its  whole  outfit  would  hardly  have  brought  fifty  dollars  "  at  vendoo  ;" 
but  the  colors  of  that  cheap  cretonne,  of  the  mahogany,  and  of  the  straw 
so  well  contrasted  and  agreed,  and  the  objects  of  the  room  so  well  an- 
swered each  other,  as  to  prove  its  mistress  a  perfect  adept  in  the  art  of 
furnishing. 

Everybody  may  have  some  genius  in  this  matter  to  be  developed  and 
fostered  ;  but  it  is  not  merely  the  individual  who  rents  a  house  that  needs 
instruction.  It  is  the  builders  of  houses  as  well,  those  men  who  locate  a 
mantel-piece  out  of  sight  on  entrance ;  who  swing  staircases  in  the  air 
without  visible  means  of  support,  pinch  them  out  of  all  nobility,  and  make 
us  walk  up  a  corkscrew  in  ascending  them ;  who  place  the  windows  so  that 
picturesque  arrangement  of  the  interior  is  impossible,  and  so  that  there  is 
no  spot  where  a  bedstead  shall  stand  and  escape  the  draught ;  who  make 
a  passage-way  of  the  dining  room,  forget  all  about  closets,  lay  the  floors  so 
that  decency  obliges  one  to  have  them  covered,  and  take  the  liberty  of 
putting  on  paper  and  paint  before  the  tenant,  who  may  want  the  very  op- 
posite paper  and  paint,  takes  the  house  at  all.  Perhaps  when  the  tenant  is 
a  little  more  exacting,  and  insists  upon  certain  things  as  rights,  the  builder 
may  learn  that  those  things  are  in  the  body  of  the  law. 

Thus,  for  example,  how  many  rooms  we  see  without  any  mantel  at  all, 
or  with  only  a  slab  of  marble  supported  on  a  couple  of  gilded  iron  scrolls 
or  brackets!  Yet  a  room  without  any  mantel  has  not  the  dignity  of  a 
tent;  it  is  simply  an  enclosure,  of  the  same  character  as  a  pound,  with  no 
central  point,  with  nothing  for  which  the  eye  seeks  at  first,  and  with  which 
it  is  satisfied  at  once,  and  upon  whose  base  it  finds  the  rest  of  the  room 
arranged  as  from  a  point  of  departure.  The  mantel  is  a  part  of  the  rev- 
erence due  the  chimney,  a  tribute  to  the  fire  upon  the  hearth,  which  is  the 
deity  of  home ;  it  is  the  modern  and  the  mediaeval  household  altar,  and  the 
last  representative,  too,  of  the  ancient  altar  and  the  Lares  and  Penates : 
too  much  honor  and  remembrance  cannot  be  given  to  it.  In  all  rooms 
the  mantel-piece  should  be  where  it  will  be  the  first  thing  to  catch  the  eye 
on  entering,  and  with  as  much  reason  as  the  ordained  position  of  host  and 
hostess  where  the  guest  can  at  once  find  them  and  receive  welcome ;  and 
it  will  be  difficult  to  make  that  room  attractive  at  first  glance  where  this 
is  not  the  case.  If  the  arrangement  is  to  be  such  as  leads  up  with  light 
and  splendid  effects  in  white  and  gold  and  delicate  tints,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  mantel  and  chimney-piece  are  the  crowning  work  of  the  room ; 
and  if  the  arrangement  is  to  be  in  soft  glooms  and  shadows,  the  mantel 
will  accentuate  it  all,  as  if  by  gathering  those  glooms  and  shadows  into 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


itself  in  still  darker  shadows — the  root  and  centre  of  them  all.  And  thus, 
whether  the  builder  has  done  his  duty  or  not  in  placing  the  mantel,  it  is 
the  furnisher's  duty  to  give  it  the  fit  prominence,  and  make  the  room  in 
some  measure  what  it  should  be,  after  one  is  once  within  it,  by  striking 
the  key-note  there. 

In  fact,  it  is  somewhat  by  this  regard  and  attention  paid  to  the  mantel 
that  one  learns  the  use  and  disposition  of  masses  in  the  room.  One  learns, 
for  instance,  if  one  wishes  to  project  the  chimney-piece  with  added  brill- 
iancy, to  place  dark  pieces  of  furniture,  books,  or  paintings  on  the  wall 
on  either  side  of  it;  one  learns  that  this  brilliancy  needs  an  answering 
shadow;  one  learns  to  counteract  the  influence  of  too  heavy  an  article  by 
another  at  a  distance ;  one  learns  how  to  darken  a  place  where  there  is 
too  strong  a  glare,  not  merely  by  curtains,  but  with  an  ottoman,  perhaps, 
standing  near  a  table,  the  table,  it  may  be,  cornering  on  a  piano  not  far 
away,  the  piano  carrying  up  the  darkness  to  the  dark  picture  above  it — 
picture,  piano,  table,  and  ottoman  not  to  be  moved.  Attention  to  the 
massing  of  objects  prevents  the  speckled,  piebald  appearance  which  we 
see  in  many  rooms,  where  everything  seems  spotty  and  disconnected,  and 
gives  a  homogeneous  character  to  the  articles,  as  if  they  belonged  together, 
had  grown  in  their  places,  and  were  a  virtual  part  of  the  room,  as  the  room 
is  of  the  house.  It  is  this  very  thing  which  gives  the  sensation  that  we 
call  "  a  home  feeling."  One  does  not  feel  at  home  in  a  room  unless  the 
furniture  seems  to  be  already  at  home  there,  and  that  it  will  never  do  un- 
less it  fits  so  exactly  into  its  niche  that  one  would  as  soon  think  of  moving 
anything  meant  to  be  stationary  as  of  moving  the  side  of  the  house — un- 
less it  looks  so  fixed  that  it  never  crosses  your  mind  to  think  house  and 
furniture  and  peojDle  will  not  grow  old  together  precisely  as  they  are.  But 
those  people  who  are  always  moving  their  furniture  about  can  never,  ex- 
cept by  some  kaleidoscopic  chance,  get  that  furniture  into  its  fit  place,  for 
the  very  circumstance  of  their  indecision  shows  their  want  of  the  neces- 
sary knack  of  house  -  furnishing ;  and  one  can  never  be  impressed  with, 
much  of  this  home  feeling  where  one  cannot  go  twice  expecting  to  find 
the  rooms  wearing  the  same  aspect. 

The  furniture  in  any  permanently  and  well-arranged  room  seems  to  be 
living  a  life  of  its  own ;  the  various  pieces  consort  in  friendly  relations ; 
and  you  never  descend,  on  any  errand,  into  such  a  room  at  night  without 
being  aware  of  a  certain  conscious  existence  on  the  part  of  the  room,  much 
like  that  of  a  tree,  and  without  being  suspicious,  if  you  are  at  all  imagi- 
native, of  a  still  more  active  life  behind  your  back.  We  have,  most  of 
us,  felt  an  answering  belief  in  the  quaint  fancies  of  Browning's  Venetian 
lover : 


THE  ART  OF  FURNISHING. 


235 


"  Stay  longer  yet,  for  others'  sake 
Than  mine  !    What  should  your  chamber  do  ? 
With  all  its  rarities  that  ache 
In  silence  while  day  lasts,  but  wake 
At  night-time  and  their  life  renew — • 

*  *     *     *     Your  harp,  believe, 
With  all  its  sensitive  tight  strings, 
That  dare  not  speak,  now  to  itself 
Breathes  slumbrously,  as  if  some  elf 
Went  in  and  out  the  chords,  his  wings 
Make  murmur  wheresoe'er  they  graze — 

******* 
And  how  your  statues'  hearts  must  swell, 
And  how  your  pictures  must  descend, 
To  see  each  other,  friend  with  friend ! 
Oh,  could  you  take  them  by  surprise, 
You'd  find  Schidone's  eager  duke 
Doing  the  quaintest  courtesies 
To  that  prim  saint  by  Haste-thee-Luke. 

*  *     *     *     Each  enjoys 

Its  night  so  well,  you  cannot  break 
The  sport  up,  so,  indeed,  must  make 
More  stay  with  me,  for  others'  sake  !" 

An  important  aid  in  the  art  of  furnishing  is  a  theory  of  colors.  One 
is  apt  to  feel  that  if  a  certain  color  effect  is  desired  in  the  room,  it  is  only 
to  be  obtained  by  using  a  whole  body  of  that  color — carpet,  curtains,  and 
upholstery  in  general ;  but  just  as  one  vivid  line  of  light  will  sometimes 
carry  more  meaning  to  the  brain  than  a  blinding  sheet  of  it,  so  frequently 
a  great  amount  of  color  will  dull  the  senses  to  its  reception,  and  act  like  a 
wet  blanket  to  fancy,  while  one  brilliant  bit  of  the  desired  tint,  placed  in 
exactly  the  right  spot,  will  do  all  that  is  required.  We  have  known  a 
person  to  leave  a  room,  where  the  prevailing  tone  was  neutral,  with  an 
idea  that  the  whole  room  was  brilliant  with  carmine,  because  the  eye  had 
been  caught  by  one  very  distinct  and  beautiful  piece  of  carmine  blazing 
out  of  all  the  ashes  tints  like  a  coal  of  fire ;  and  another  who  described  a 
room,  where  carpet  and  curtains  were  fawn,  as  very  gay  and  bright  in 
peacock-blues,  because  a  black  table-cloth  had  a  border  wrought  in  pea- 
cock-blue, a  footstool  of  the  same  lay  on  the  carpet  beside  it,  and  a  Chinese 
jar  of  the  lustrous  peacock-blue  was  in  a  niche  above  it. 

One  should  seek  to  reach  a  breadth  of  effect  in  the  disposition  of  one's 
articles,  keeping  always  in  mind  their  union  as  a  whole,  even  when  attend- 
ing to  the  details  of  odd  corners.  The  broad  effect  is  not  injured  by  a 
quantity  of  furniture,  provided  it  keeps  on  this  side  of  the  limit  of  crowd- 
ing :  sofas  and  lounges  along  the  vacant  wall,  or  seeming  to  be  along  it, 


236 


ART  DECORATION  APPLIED  TO  FURNITURE. 


even  if  at  various  angles  with  it ;  seats  in  all  of  the  odd  recesses ;  chairs  in 
the  open  spaces ;  tables ;  easels.  There  are  those  who  think  that  to  fill  a 
room  is  to  rob  it  of  half  its  size  ;  but  they  are  mistaken.  A  great  painter 
secures  far-reaching  water  surfaces  by  line  after  line  continually  breaking 
monotonous  space,  each  catching  the  eye  with  new  interest  and  carrying 
it  to  the  next,  till  it  has  travelled  far  enough  to  gain  the  full  idea  of  the 
long  distance  it  has  passed  over;  and  so  the  eye,  following  on  from  divan 
to  table,  from  table  to  chair,  from  chair  to  portfolio  stand,  none  breaking 
rudely  on  the  unisons  of  one  characteristic  shape,  and  all  under  one  soft 
light,  obtains  the  idea  of  depth  and  distance  in  the  room.  Another  mis- 
take, which  is  not  an  uncommon  one,  is  the  notion  that  everybody's  house 
must  be  like  that  of  everybody  else.  Certainly  our  rooms,  in  common 
with  other  rooms,  must  have  walls  and  windows,  carpet,  whether  that  be 
entire  or  in  rugs,  and  curtains  of  some  sort  of  drapery,  wherever  they  can 
be  afforded,  as  a  room  of  any  size  seems  incomplete  without  them,  and 
always  has  a  naked  air  and  suggests  a  lack  of  warmth  and  even  of  habi- 
tation ;  but  beyond  these  requisites  there  may  be  infinite  variety,  and 
every  house  is  the  better  for  expressing  the  individuality  of  the  owner, 
and  for  having  personal  traits  and  preferences  apparent,  since  what  is 
slightly  peculiar  and  quaint,  without  being  fantastic,  gives  vivacity,  and 
is  of  more  worth  than  uniform  and  mechanical  dulness. 

Yet  we  think  that  every  room  should  be  in  one  dominating  key,  and 
all  the  rooms  of  the  floor,  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  should  be  a  set  of 
correspondences  in  ideas  and  color.  That  is  to  say,  one  should  not  fur- 
nish one's  house  in  a  medley  of  all  styles,  this  room  in  the  Pompeian,  that 
in  the  Tudor,  and  another  in  the  Rococo,  nor  with  too  violent  a  change 
in  tint  from  room  to  room ;  but  one  mean  style  should  prevail,  except,  it 
may  be,  where  some  one  little  nook  is  desired — a  smoking-room,  a  bou- 
doir, a  growlery — as  a  complete  contrast,  a  relaxation,  or  a  brilliant  sur- 
prise. In  small  houses  it  is  pleasant  even  to  see  one  carpet  spreading 
over  the  hall  floor  and  the  floors  of  rooms  on  either  side ;  but  in  large 
houses  nothing  of  the  sort  should  be  attempted,  nor  is  it  usually  possible 
with  a  light  and  lovely  drawing-room,  unless  that  is  beyond  an  anteroom. 
Nor  should  one  mingle  styles  in  one  room,  although  there  are  pieces  of 
furniture  just  bordering  on  the  last  of  the  Gothic  and  the  first  of  the 
Renaissance  that  are  not  out  of  place  with  the  varieties  of  either  style  ; 
and  the  Elizabethan  itself,  that  ranged  under  the  later  banner,  casts  an  eye 
back  upon  its  Gothic  beginnings,  while  the  modern  Queen  Anne  lends 
itself  with  equal  ease  to  a  certain  amount  of  classic  or  mediaeval  acces- 
sories. But  if  one  has  a  parlor  furnished  in  the  "  old-fashioned "  arti- 
cles that  were  cherished  by  our  grandfathers  a  hundred  years  ago  and 


THE  ART  OF  FURNISHING. 


237 


more,  and  are  beginning  to  be  cherished  by  us — the  straight-backed  nar- 
row carved  chairs,  the  long  spindle-legged  tables  and  fire-screens  whose 
claw  feet  are  grasping  a  ball,  and  all  their  sort  —  one  should  endeavor  to 
get  for  the  piano  a  spindle-legged  case  like  that  which  it  wore  a  half  cen- 
tury or  so  since,  or  should,  at  any  rate,  compromise  on  a  cabinet  piano,  for 
the  huge  members  and  vast  surfaces  of  the  modern  piano  make  a  strange 
discord  with  the  slender  grace  of  the  era  of  the  minuet  and  the  long 
sword.  Yet  a  room  where  absolute  purity  of  style  is  insisted  upon  in 
every  trivial  point — window-glass,  andirons,  wall  sconces — is  like  a  strait- 
jacket,  and  its  rigidity  destroys  all  the  comfort  of  home,  and  seems  mere 
affectation.  It  is  only  true  taste  that  can  tell  exactly  where  to  drop  the 
ban  and  introduce  the  article  whose  color  and  shape  and  structure  may  be 
delightful  to  the  eye  and  harmonious  with  other  things,  although  built 
after  a  pattern  of  two  hundred  years  earlier  or  later,  and  on  the  plan  of  a 
fancy  bred  half  the  circumference  of  the  earth  away.  Taste,  after  all,  as 
we  have  said,  the  offspring  of  genius  and  tact,  is  the  great  secret  of  the  art 
of  furnishing ;  and  although  that  is  a  thing  to  be  cultivated  just  as  much 
as  any  seedling  that  the  gardener  transforms  from  its  barbarous  wildness 
to  full  beauty,  yet  no  rules  can  ever  supply  its  original  deficiency. 


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